Democrats demand Joe Biden finalize Title IX updates to protect trans students & athletes

Democrats and LGBTQ+ groups are urging President Joe Biden’s administration to quickly finalize its proposed LGBTQ+-inclusive updates to Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. The updates, which would reinstate trans-inclusive policies, initially promised to finalize the updates in October.

Their urging coincides with a Congress hearing on the participation of trans people in school sports. The hearing featured transphobic comments by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and competitive swimmer Riley Gaines Barker repeatedly misgendering trans women as men ruining women’s sports.

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The activists told the legislature that family rejection and addiction treatment are better for trans people than the medically accepted standard of care.

Over 60 congressional Democrats — including four gay and lesbian congressmembers — signed a recent letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona demanding that his department finalize the rules “as soon as possible.”

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“We are concerned about the delay,” the letter said, noting that students have lived for years under former President Donald Trump’s “draconian” anti-LGBTQ+ interpretation of Title IX, which “weakened protections” for trans students by requiring schools to recognize students as the gender they were assigned at birth.

“We request an updated timeline and urge you to dedicate all necessary resources to finalize these rules as soon as possible,” the letter reads. It was also signed by gay Democratic Reps. Mark Takano (CA), Ritchie Torres (NY), Becca Balint (VT), and Mark Pocan (WI).

The revised rules would allow trans students the right to access school facilities and programs consistent with their gender identities. The rules would also allow for some schools to limit the participation of trans athletes in sports while also forbidding schools from completely banning trans athletes altogether. Schools that discriminate against trans students risk lawsuits and a loss of federal funding.

On Tuesday, queer students and allies demonstrated at Lafayette Square in front of the White House alongside the Human Rights Campaign, the National Women’s Law Center, and the student advocacy group Know Your IX, urging the Biden administration to finalize the protections, The 19th reported.

Concurrently, House Republicans have been holding hearings entitled “The Importance of Protecting Female Athletics and Title IX,” to speak against trans sports participation under the expected updates. At the hearing, both Greene and Barker blamed Democrats for trying to harm women’s sports by “forcing” cis female athletes to play against “biological men.”

Greene, Barker, and others believe that trans women must be banned from competing against cis female athletes because biological traits and pubertal changes give trans girls unfair physical advantages over their cisgender opponents and “erase” women’s hard-won victories in sports. Critics of this position point out that sexism and poor funding harm women’s sports and discourage female athleticism far more than trans competitors and that most trans student-athletes just want to play sports alongside their friends.