Editing Title IX (section)

== Protections for transgender students ==
{{main|Gender identity under Title IX}}

Under the [[Obama administration]], the U.S. Department of Education-issued guidance asserted that [[transgender]] students are protected from sex-based discrimination under Title IX.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-08-06 |title=Civil Rights Division {{!}} Title IX |url=https://www.justice.gov/crt/title-ix |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240106001004/https://www.justice.gov/crt/title-ix#Bostock |archive-date=2024-01-06 |access-date=2024-01-06 |website=www.justice.gov |language=en}}</ref> In particular, Title IX of its Education Amendments of 1972 bars schools that receive financial aid assistance from sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities. It instructed public schools to treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity in academic life. A student who identifies as a transgender boy, for instance, is allowed entry to a boys-only class, and a student who identifies as a transgender girl is allowed entry to a girls-only class. This also applies to academic records if that student is over the age of eighteen at a university.<ref name="Dominic Holden">{{cite web|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/department-of-education-issues-guidelines-to-protect-transge?s=mobile|title=Department Of Education Issues Guidelines To Protect Transgender Students In Single-Sex Classrooms|author=Dominic Holden|work=BuzzFeed|date=December 2014 |access-date=December 2, 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171121033755/https://www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/department-of-education-issues-guidelines-to-protect-transge?s=mobile|archive-date=November 21, 2017}}</ref> The memo states in part that "[a]ll students, including transgender students, or students who do not conform to sex stereotypes, are protected from sex-based discrimination under Title IX. Under Title IX, a recipient generally must treat transgender, or gender non-conforming, consistent with their gender identity in all aspects of the planning, implementation, enrollment, operation, and evaluation of single-sex classes."<ref name="Dominic Holden"/>

However, starting in 2017 with the [[First presidency of Donald Trump|Trump administration]], several of these policies have been rolled back. In February 2017, the Departments of Justice and Education (headed by Attorney General [[Jeff Sessions]] and Education Secretary [[Betsy DeVos]], respectively) withdrew the guidance on gender identity.<ref name="guardian-23feb2017">{{cite news|author1=David Smith|author2=Molly Redden|title=Trump administration rescinds Obama-era protections for transgender students|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/22/transgender-students-bathroom-trump-obama|access-date=February 23, 2017|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=February 23, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222220432/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/22/transgender-students-bathroom-trump-obama|archive-date=February 22, 2017}}</ref> The Education Department announced on February 12, 2018, that Title IX did not allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their gender identities.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/02/12/education-department-will-no-longer-investigate-transgender-bathroom-complaints/|title=Education Department no longer investigating transgender bathroom complaints|first=Moriah|last=Balingit|date=February 12, 2018|access-date=April 27, 2018|via=www.washingtonpost.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322084639/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/02/12/education-department-will-no-longer-investigate-transgender-bathroom-complaints/|archive-date=March 22, 2018}}</ref>

Dwayne Bensing, a lawyer for the [[Office of Civil Rights]] within the [[United States Department of Education]] and who was in its LGBTQ affinity group, had unsuccessfully asked DeVos not to withdraw the Obama administration guidance. Two years later, in the summer of 2019, Bensing discovered that the Education Department was fast-tracking the [[Alliance Defending Freedom]]'s complaint against transgender student-athletes, even though the department's attorneys did not understand the legal basis for doing so and the department had to pressure other employees. Bensing leaked this information to the ''[[Washington Blade]]'' and was forced to resign in December 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/education-department-whistleblower-forced-out-transgender-students_n_5e336a7cc5b611ac94d1fb1d|title=Education Department Whistleblower Forced Out After Exposing Push Against Trans Athletes|last=Klein|first=Rebecca|date=January 31, 2020|website=HuffPost|language=en|access-date=February 1, 2020}}</ref>

In October 2018, ''[[The New York Times]]'' obtained a memo issued by the Department of Health and Human Services that would propose a strict definition of gender for Title IX, using the person's sex as determined at birth and could not be changed, effectively limiting recognition of transgender students and potentially others. The memo stated that the government needed to define gender "on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable".<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/us/politics/transgender-trump-administration-sex-definition.html?module=inline | title ='Transgender' Could Be Defined Out of Existence Under Trump Administration | first1 = Erica | last1= Green | first2=  Katie | last2=  Benner | first3 =  Robert | last3 = Pear | date = October 21, 2018 | access-date = October 22, 2018 | work = [[The New York Times]] }}</ref> The news brought immediate protests in several locations as well as online social media under the "#WontBeErased" hashtag.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/us/transgender-reaction-rally.html | title = #WontBeErased: Transgender People and Allies Mobilize Against Trump Administration Proposal | first = Sarah | last = Mervosh | date = October 22, 2018 | access-date = October 22, 2018 | work = [[The New York Times]] }}</ref>

In May 2020, the Trump administration's Department of Education contended that the rights of [[cisgender]] women are infringed upon by transgender women. The Education Department started to withhold federal funding to schools which affirm the identities of transgender athletes.<ref>https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/sports/article/Connecticut-transgender-policy-found-to-violate-15300275.php{{Dead link|date=January 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In August 2020, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]] affirmed a 2018 lower court ruling in [[Adams v. The School Board of St. Johns County, Florida]] that discrimination on the basis of gender identity is discrimination "on the basis of sex" and is prohibited under Title IX (federal civil rights law) and the [[Equal Protection Clause]] of the [[14th Amendment to the US Constitution]].<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/fl_adams-v-school-board-st-johns-county | title = Adams v. The School Board of St. Johns County, Florida | access-date = August 23, 2020 | work = [[Lambda Legal]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201813592.pdf  | title = Adams v. The School Board of St. Johns County, Florida | date = August 7, 2020 | access-date = August 23, 2020 | work = [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]] }}</ref>

In December 2020, the "Protect Women in Sports" Act was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives. It would block schools from receiving federal funding if transgender girls and nonbinary people are allowed to compete on girls' sports teams at those schools. It was sponsored by Representatives [[Tulsi Gabbard]], a Democrat, and [[Markwayne Mullin]], a Republican.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Mosbergen|first=Dominique|date=2020-12-10|title=Tulsi Gabbard Introduces Anti-Transgender Bill After Claiming To Be LGBTQ-Friendly|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tulsi-gabbard-anti-transgender-bill-title-ix_n_5fd2de33c5b66a75841389b5|access-date=2020-12-11|website=HuffPost|language=en}}</ref>

In 2021, the [[Presidency of Joe Biden|Biden administration]] took steps to reinstate some of the protections for transgender students that had been rescinded under the Trump administration. These included two [[List of executive actions by Joe Biden|executive orders]]—13988 in January 2021<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-01-21 |title=Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation |url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-preventing-and-combating-discrimination-on-basis-of-gender-identity-or-sexual-orientation/ |access-date=2024-01-06 |website=The White House |language=en-US}}</ref> and 14021 in March 2021<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-03-08 |title=Executive Order on Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity |url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/03/08/executive-order-on-guaranteeing-an-educational-environment-free-from-discrimination-on-the-basis-of-sex-including-sexual-orientation-or-gender-identity/ |access-date=2024-01-06 |website=The White House |language=en-US}}</ref>—which were supported by the US Department of Education,<ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. Department of Education Confirms Title IX Protects Students from Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity {{!}} U.S. Department of Education |url=https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-confirms-title-ix-protects-students-discrimination-based-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity |access-date=2024-01-06 |website=www.ed.gov|date=June 16, 2021 }}</ref> though their ability to implement their guidance was limited in June 2022 within the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=June 22, 2021 |title=Department of Education 34 CFR Chapter I Enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 With Respect to Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Light of Bostock v. Clayton County |url=https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/202106-titleix-noi.pdf |journal=Federal Register |language=en |volume=86 |issue=117 |pages=32637–32640}}</ref>

On January 9, 2025, U.S. District court judge [[Danny C. Reeves]] of Kentucky struck down the Biden administration’s expanded protections, striking down the change nationwide.<ref name="guard-9jan2024">{{cite news |title=Biden's Title IX expansion protecting LGBTQ+ students struck down |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/09/bidens-title-ix-struck-down |access-date=January 9, 2024 |work=[[The Guardian]] |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=January 9, 2024}}</ref>

In Donald Trump's second term, the Department of Education reverted to 2022 regulations on protections based on gender identity under Title IX.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cochran |first=Lexi |date=January 31, 2025 |title=Department of Education undoes Biden's Title IX rules on gender |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5118925-trump-biden-title-ix-education-gender-lgbtq/ |access-date=April 8, 2025 |work=The Hill}}</ref> On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued [[Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government]] which, for the purposes of the federal government, defined the sex of a person as their sex at conception.  It also said that this sex could not be changed during a person's life.  The order also rescinded Biden's executive orders 13988 and 14021 which defined a person's sex as their self assessed gender identity.<ref name="wh">{{cite web |title=Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government |url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121214116/https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/ |archive-date=21 January 2025 |website=[[White House]]|date=January 21, 2025 }}</ref> In February, President Trump signed [[Executive Order 14201]], directing the federal government to interpret Title&nbsp;IX rules as prohibiting transgender girls and women from female sports.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dunbar |first=Marina |date=2025-02-05 |title=Trump signs executive order banning trans athletes from women's sports |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/05/trump-trans-athletes-ban |access-date=2025-04-08 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> In April, the Department of Justice and Department of Education launched the Title&nbsp;IX Special Investigations Team to streamline investigations into violations of policies prohibiting transgender women and girls from sports teams and restrooms, stating in a news release that the team would "protect students, and especially female athletes, from the pernicious effects of gender ideology in school programs and activities." The LGBTQ advocacy group [[GLAAD]] accused the initiative of wasting taxpayer resources and warned such bans "endanger all girls as they risk invasive genital exams and other expensive ‘verification.’"<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-04-04 |title=In latest trans sports salvo, Trump administration creates Title IX investigation team |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/latest-trans-sports-salvo-trump-administration-creates-title-ix-invest-rcna199732 |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-04-04 |title=Office of Public Affairs {{!}} U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice Announce Title IX Special Investigations Team {{!}} United States Department of Justice |url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-department-education-and-us-department-justice-announce-title-ix-special-investigations |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=www.justice.gov |language=en}}</ref>