The Biden Education Department is in the process of finalizing a rule that would gut most of the Trump-era sexual harassment and rape reforms and put men on college campuses once again in jeopardy of having their lives ruined.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring all students are guaranteed an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex,” an Education Department spokesperson said in a statement. “The Department of Education has taken the next step to advance a rule, first proposed in 2022, that strengthens protections for students from sexual harassment and for LGBTQI+ students.”
It's a nightmare, plain and simple.
The move comes amid monthslong speculation over whether the Education Department will blow through a third self-imposed deadline on finalizing the part of Title IX that covers sexual misconduct and codifies protections for gender identity. The agency is also facing a separate deadline for a section overseeing athletics eligibility where it proposed making sweeping bans on transgender students’ sports participation illegal.
While the unified agenda initially listed March of 2024 as the target date for both rules, the department said it is still reviewing the athletics eligibility rule. Timing on when the final sexual misconduct rule will be released is now up to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. OIRA review is limited to 90 days, according to the website, but can sometimes be extended. There is no minimum time for review.
None of this is a surprise, so far, but once the White House gender warriors get a hold of the rule, anything is possible.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is proposing a radical change in the standard non-discrimination clause. He wants the proposed rule to ban "all forms of sex discrimination, including discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation and gender identity.”
"Sex stereotypes," and "sex characteristics" pretty much broaden the definition of discrimination to whatever Title IX administrators say it is.
The rule against banning trans athletes is going to run into a lot of legal trouble from states that ban all trans people from playing athletics not associated with their assigned gender.
Cardona later in April of 2023 released a rule to bolster transgender students’ rights to play on sports teams but with limitations. The proposal was met with more than 150,000 comments. It aims to bar schools from adopting or enforcing policies that categorically ban transgender students from participating on teams consistent with their gender identity. At least 24 states have laws or regulations banning transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
“The Department is still reviewing a second rule related to athletics, which was first proposed nine months after the first rule, and which received 150,000 public comments which by law must be carefully considered,” the department spokesperson said.
The Education Department and the Biden administration have already decided to go ahead and publish the rule. They're trying to gauge the political damage they're going to suffer for caving to the feminists and the radical transgender lobbies.
Expect the final rule to be approved on a Friday afternoon on a holiday weekend.