Four more states filed a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s overhaul of Title IX, which changed the definition of “sex” to include claimed gender identities in civil rights law.
Kansas, Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming joined forces on Tuesday with Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation, Female Athletes United, and an unnamed minor child with her mother, Shawna Rowland, to challenge the overhaul in court.
“If Biden has his way, a 16-year-old female high school student on an overnight field trip could be forced to share a hotel room with a biological male who identifies as a girl or the district would risk losing federal funding,” Kansas GOP Attorney General Kris Kobach said in a statement. “A 14-year-old girl could be forced to share a locker room and change in front of an 18-year-old man who identifies as a woman or the district could lose funds. It’s unconscionable, it’s dangerous for girls and women, and it’s against federal law.”
In mid-April, the Biden administration finalized controversial rules governing Title IX regulations on sexual harassment and discrimination, altering the definition of sex and potentially forcing schools to terminate sex-specific private spaces such as restrooms. It also overhauled the strong due process protections put in place by the Trump administration, ensuring rights to students accused of sexual misconduct on college campuses.
“It forces both boys and girls, in their most formative years, to sacrifice their privacy in personal spaces such as restrooms, locker rooms, and even overnight accommodations,” the lawsuit said of the Title IX rewrite. “It takes an explicit state function (the creation and administration of public schools) and warps it by conditioning federal education funding on schools violating the constitutional rights of their students and employees.”
The lawsuit also argues that Title IX violates the First Amendment rights of students and school employees by forcing them to use “preferred pronouns” for anyone who claims a gender not aligned with their biological sex.
The four states’ challenge joins a barrage of lawsuits from 22 other states that have either filed or joined coalitions of states to challenge the Title IX rewrite, bringing the total to at least 26.
The Kansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union quickly criticized the lawsuit.
“The U.S. Department of Education’s rules require that schools guarantee that all students, including survivors of sexual harassment, LGBTQ students, and pregnant and parenting students, have full and equal access to educational opportunities regardless of sex,” Kansas ACLU Executive Director Micah Kubic said in a statement. “To Mr. Kobach, the issuance of the rule is an opportunity to advance his extreme agenda — but for Kansans who face sexual harassment and violence, this is about protecting their right to be safe in leaving their rooms, going to class, or getting help they need.”
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The ACLU nationally and at the state level has been active in attempting to thwart parental rights, expand gender ideology, and permit access to irreversible transgender procedures for children, as the Washington Examiner reported.
The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Kansas.