U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel of the Eastern District of Missouri has blocked the Department of Education’s unconstitutional rewrite of Title IX in six states that would force women to share private spaces with gender-confused biological males in schools and colleges receiving federal dollars. 

In the State of Arkansas, et al. v. U.S. Department of Education, et al., six states, which include Missouri,  Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Amelia Ford, a 15-year-old Arkansas high school athlete and her mother, sued the federal government on the basis it exceeded its authority by rewriting the law. Plaintiffs also claim the Rule violates the First Amendment, “goes against decades of understanding of Title IX making it arbitrary and capricious, and presents an actual controversy by redefining ‘sex’ to include gender identity.” 

On April 29, the Department of Education (DOE) published the Title IX Final Rule on the Federal Register, which expanded the definition of “sex” and “sex discrimination” to include “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” as protected categories against discrimination. The revamped Title IX is scheduled to take effect nationwide August 1, 2024.

Since 1972, Title IX has protected women and girls from discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program that receives taxpayer dollars, including K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. However, the Department of Education recently issued the Rule which interprets the law and forces a radical LGBT agenda by forcing educational programs to accommodate males’ desire to enter female-only spaces and join female-only organizations. If schools ignore the Rule, the federal government has threatened to revoke their funding. 

The Rule defines Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination to include “discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.” The term “gender identity” is not defined but is considered as “an individual’s sense of their gender, which may or may not be different from their sex assigned at birth.” The Rule also does not specify how a school should determine a student’s gender identity and permits a school to rely on  students’ “consistent assertion to determine their gender identity, or on written confirmation of the student’s gender identity by the student or student’s parent, counselor, coach or teacher.” However, the Rule states that “requiring a student to submit to invasive medical inquiries or burdensome documentation requirements to participate in a recipient’s education program or activity consistent with their gender identity imposes more than de minimis harm.” 

The lawsuit mentions Ford’s faith several times and states that this radical rewrite of Title IX would be a violation of her Christian beliefs. She is a basketball player and recently stated at a press conference, “You don’t just become a girl by what you feel or by what you think. The government should not force us to disregard common sense and reality.” 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The radical rewrite of Title IX regulations contradicts everything the law was enacted to do. If this Rule goes into effect, women and girls are stripped of privacy, safety, and fairness in schools and colleges. This radical gender ideology in education must stop.” 

For more information about state laws protecting against gender ideology, visit Liberty Counsel’s website here.