The Patriot Post® · Playing Games With Title IX

Title IX — which gives women a chance to participate and excel in sports — is just one weapon in the Biden administration’s arsenal to pursue radical gender theory and champion “transgender” rights. This administration is actively seeking to undo what Education Secretary Betsy DeVos orchestrated under President Donald Trump, who in turn was making giant reforms from the radical notions of Arne Duncan of the Obama administration.

President Joe Biden’s Department of Education (DOE) has made subtle language adjustments to muddy the waters and provide enough latitude to push a highly unpopular radical agenda under the guise of respectable education regulation. Here are some of the major changes.

The inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity.

This writer has discussed this topic at length in other articles. The Biden administration, by changing the language of this line — “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” — to include sexual orientation and gender identity, has actively sacrificed our girls’ educational and athletic opportunities, as well as undermined their safety and privacy. It is also widely rejected by voters across the nation.

Handling sexual misconduct.

The Biden administration has systematically undone the monumental changes that DeVos put in place to stop legally dubious and biased kangaroo courts, whose main motivation was persecution, not justice. DeVos narrowed the definition of sexual harassment based on precedent set by the Supreme Court. As National Review contributor Robert S. Eitel described it: “To ensure fairness in Title IX proceedings, the DeVos regulations mandate basic due-process protections, such as access for accused students to evidence developed in the investigation, the right to an adviser during any proceedings, and, for postsecondary institutions, live hearings with cross-examination by each party’s adviser. In existence for barely two years, the DeVos regulations balance the needs of students suffering from sexual harassment with those accused of such conduct.”

Enter the Biden yo-yo. His DOE wants to kill those reforms. Not only because the Left wants to coerce everyone into its ideology but because it wants to stifle free speech.

Religious protections.

Under Obama, when Title IX first encompassed gender identity in its definition of sex-based discrimination, religious schools immediately needed to find recourse so that their firmly held views on gender roles, sexuality, and marriage were protected. These religious protections have been affirmed again and again, with rulings protecting religious exemptions throughout the federal court system. The Biden DOE, however, is removing those protections. This line in particular has been scrapped: “An educational institution that seeks assurance of the exemption set forth in paragraph (a) of this section may do so by submitting in writing to the Assistant Secretary a statement by the highest ranking official of the institution, identifying the provisions of this part that conflict with a specific tenet of the religious organization.”

Title IX granting powers of dictator.

By taking away DeVos’s reforms regarding the definition of sexual harassment, the Biden administration is licensing Title IX dictators who are positioned at schools to cudgel students, faculty, and staff into silence. It places the responsibility of staff to snitch on their fellow faculty members and students should they step out of line. This clearly is not a free and fair policy but one rife with manipulation and coercion. In many cases, it violates the First Amendment.

Ambiguous language on providing “reasonable modifications for students because of pregnancy or related conditions.”

The Supreme Court recently decided in its monumental case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that abortion should be given back to the states for the duly elected representatives of those states to fight it out. That way, the American people have more of a say on the issue. Naturally, this radically leftist administration has fought to undermine this sage decision at every turn.

The ambiguous language added to Title IX under President Biden — “reasonable modifications for students because of pregnancy or related conditions” — has cracked open the door for abortion to be foisted on campuses regardless of what the states have decided on the issue.

It is incredibly frustrating that the Department of Education — an arm of the executive branch whose bureaucrats are not elected but appointed — is able to push its political worldview on the public regardless of what the voters’ priorities are. It is a blatant overreach. This branch’s job is to enforce the laws, not create its own.

Most voters do not like this progressive legislation. And yet, because of the subversion of the system through undue use of power by the executive branch, there is little hope of normalcy and reform until a president of that persuasion is in charge.

The bottom line is that, depending on who’s in the Oval Office, women’s rights will either be respected or manipulated to suit the political ends of radical leftists.