On Friday, President Donald Trump’s Department of Education told K-12 schools and higher learning institutions that Title IX protections will be recognized on the basis of biological sex, undoing former President Joe Biden’s 2024 rewrite.
The “Dear Colleague” letter returns to the Trump administration’s 2020 Title IX rule and “ends a serious threat to campus free speech and ensures much stronger due process protections for students during Title IX proceedings,” according to a press release.
“The Biden Administration’s failed attempt to rewrite Title IX was an unlawful abuse of regulatory power and an egregious slight to women and girls,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for Civil Rights under the Trump administration, said in a statement.
“The Education Department will champion equal opportunity for all Americans, including women and girls, by protecting their right to safe and separate facilities and activities in schools, colleges, and universities,” he added.
FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN BIDEN ADMIN’S TITLE IX REWRITE
President Joe Biden speaks to the United Nations for his last time as President (Getty Images)
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex or gender for entities that receive federal funding.
Under the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX rule interpretation, the definition of “sex” was changed to include gender identity as well as sexual orientation.
U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty issued a preliminary injunction on June 13, 2024, to the Biden administration’s Title IX rewrite, saying “This case demonstrates the abuse of power by executive federal agencies in the rulemaking process. The separation of powers and system of checks and balances exist in this country for a reason.”
On Jan. 9, 2025, Chief Judge Danny Reeves of the Eastern District Court of Kentucky struck down the Biden administration’s 2024 rewrite, saying, “[W]hen Title IX is viewed in its entirety, it is abundantly clear that discrimination on the basis of sex means discrimination on the basis of being a male or female. As this Court and others have explained, expanding the meaning of ‘on the basis of sex’ to include ‘gender identity’ turns Title IX on its head.”
The US Department of Education building is seen on August 21, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Tierney L. Cross)
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Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer and activist for female athletes, posted on X, “Alas, Joe Biden’s illegal administrative rewrite of Title IX has come to an abrupt end. ‘Sex’ = male & female as intended when written 1972 If educational programs don’t comply, they risk losing federal funding.”
Betsey DeVos, Trump’s first term Secretary of Education who was involved in writing the 2020 Title IX rule, also posted on X, “At long last, common sense returns!”
