The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has granted an injunction pending appeal which continues to block the Biden administration’s Title IX changes from taking effect in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. 

In the State of Alabama, et al. v. U.S. Department of Education, et al., the Court reversed an Alabama judge’s decision to allow the Title IX rule changes to take effect. The Eleventh Circuit became the seventh court in the nation to temporarily block the Biden administration’s unconstitutional rewrite of Title IX raising the tally to 26 states that do not have to enforce it. 

Title IX reformed education in 1972 to provide equal opportunities for men and women and to prevent sex discrimination. Biden’s new Title IX Final Rule infuses “gender identity” into the definition of “sex” and would apply sex discrimination protections to those who “identify” as the opposite gender. The rule would force women to share private spaces with gender-confused males while mandating the use of “preferred pronouns” in schools and colleges receiving federal dollars. The changes are meant to govern every K-12 school and higher education institution in the nation that accepts federal taxpayer funding.

The Court wrote, “The rule represents a sea change to the regulations administering Title IX by, among other things, expanding the definition of discrimination on the ‘basis of sex’ to include discrimination based on gender identity—as well as materially altering and expanding the scope of Title IX’s sexual-harassment-related regulations. 

In addition, the Court pointed out First Amendment concerns which includes using “preferred pronouns” could create “hostile environment harassment.” 

“Thus, harassing a student—including acts of verbal, nonverbal, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on the student’s nonconformity with stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity or gender identity—can constitute discrimination on the basis of sex under Title IX in certain circumstances.” 

Even though the Title IX changes took effect August 1, they do not apply in the 26 states that challenged the rewrite. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The radical rewrite of Title IX regulations contradicts everything the law was enacted to do. Females 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.