Title IX must protect LGBTQ+ students—support rulemaking to make it happen!
Submit a Public Comment Directly at the Federal Register
Title IX, passed in 1972, prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of a person’s sex. (Today we would say gender.) This civil rights law has enabled generations’ worth of progress toward gender equity at every level of education, from early childhood education through university: any educational institution that receives federal dollars is forbidden from sex discrimination by Title IX.
Discrimination against LGBTQ+ students is a form of discrimination on the basis of sex. If you’re an educational institution that receives federal funding, and you’re excluding students from full participation because of their sex, you’re violating Title IX.
The Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education has published a proposed rule that clarifies Title IX’s protections of LGBTQ+ students, pursuant to Executive Order 14021, which President Biden issued last year. The president’s EO reverses actions by the Trump Administration to deny LGBTQ+ students the law’s protections.
The Department of Education is collecting public comment on the proposed rule through Monday, September 12. Unfortunately, the rule is currently being deluged with hate comments from bigots. Your comment can help balance out the garbage and reaffirm our nation’s support for freedom and opportunity for all.
Talking Points
(Note: below are talking points you can use to craft your own statement. Public comment works best when every comment is unique, well-researched and personally relevant.)
Submit public comment on the Federal Register by Monday, September 12, 2022.
A comment in your own words is best, but feel free to draw on these talking points. If you have a relevant personal story that demonstrates the importance, necessity, and relief of these protections, that can be particularly potent.
Everyone has the right to a quality education, no matter their gender or their romantic or sexual orientation.
Gender discrimination is sex discrimination.
Discriminating against students for loving someone of the same sex is discrimination based on sex.
Discriminating against students for being transgender—of a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth—is discrimination based on sex.
Students should be able to talk about themselves freely with their classmates, including about their relationships or their identities, without fearing retaliation from school authorities.
Students shouldn’t have to fear retaliation or expulsion for proudly being who they are.
Students learn better when they aren’t living in fear.
Discrimination against gay and bi/pan students is gender discrimination.
Discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming students is gender discrimination.
If it’s not OK to do it to a straight student, it’s not OK to do it to a gay or bi/pan student.
If it’s not OK to do it to a cisgender student, it’s not OK to do it to a transgender student.
Background
Title IX is a federal law dating back to 1972 that says, in 37 simple words:
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.
Schools of every type—from elementary schools to universities—used to favor, or even explicitly only allow, male students. Female students were often stereotyped, dismissed, harassed, or otherwise discriminated against. Higher educational institutions might refuse to admit them at all. And this was before any significant movement toward recognizing non-binary identities—if you weren’t male or female, they didn’t know what to do with you. (This is still too common, but improving.)
Title IX, like any law, could not change things instantly or fix everything—discrimination isn’t over, it’s just illegal. But the law has made a big difference.
Sports is one of the most visible areas of improvement. A common means of exclusion was that schools simply didn’t have girls’ or women’s teams; now they do, and the students who join those teams are able to thrive. In the NCAA, women’s teams see participation rates comparable to those of men’s.
Whether it’s on the court or in the classroom, every student deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Gender discrimination comes from preconceived ideas about gender roles—the idea that men are suited for certain things and women aren’t, the idea that trans and non-binary people shouldn’t exist, the idea that men should have power over women, and so on. These ideas motivate both discrimination by individuals—faculty and fellow students may mistreat students for reasons rooted in these bigoted ideas—and also systemic discrimination, efforts to erect barriers against full participation by anyone who doesn’t fit this restrictive mold.
This is a fight on many fronts, but one of them is the legal front—reaffirming that Title IX requires full equal opportunity, not just “there should be more women.”
President Biden issued Executive Order 14021 on March 8, 2021, “on Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity.” This order reversed actions by the Trump Administration that attempted to deny LGBTQ+ students the law’s protections from discrimination in schools.
The Trump Administration’s actions were part of the still-ongoing campaign by the radical right wing to oppress and exclude LGBTQ+ Americans, denying their rights and indeed their very existence in service of the bigoted ideas of strict, narrow gender roles that we mentioned above. Bathroom bills, attempts to exclude trans kids from school sports, harassment—it’s all of a piece, all for the same warped cause.
We must not allow the radical fringe to take away our freedom to be who we are, and where they have done so, we must repair that damage and heal those injuries. President Biden’s action and the Department of Education’s implementation of it are necessary steps toward restoring the full protections of the law for all students.