U.S. House Votes to End Transgender Student Protections
The House approved a resolution to reverse Title IX, Biden's rules designed to protect transgender students from discrimination.
Republicans have voted to overturn a Biden administration rule that prohibits discrimination against transgender students based on their gender identity.
The House of Representatives voted along party lines, 210-205, for a “disapproval resolution” calling for overturning guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, issued in April, regarding the interpretation of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational settings.
The Biden administration has adopted the view — based on the rationale underlying a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision on anti-LGBTQ workplace discrimination — that gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination are forms of sex-based discrimination.
Conservatives — who largely believe that gender cannot differ from assigned sex at birth — argue that the law intends to protect only “biological females” from discrimination or harassment.
A resolution nearly identical to the one passed by the House has been introduced in the Senate but is unlikely to receive a vote as long as the Senate is under Democratic control.
The White House said this week that President Joe Biden would veto the resolution if it reached his desk.
Republicans and anti-LGBTQ advocates argue that interpreting Title IX more broadly to include gender identity will infringe on cisgender female students’ privacy rights by eliminating sex-segregated facilities.
They also argue that enforcing such an interpretation will deny cisgender females opportunities to excel in athletic activities, where they may have a competitive disadvantage compared to transgender females.
The Biden administration argues that the April guidance does not mention sports teams and that the administration is currently working on a separate rule regarding athlete eligibility.
Biden was criticized by LGBTQ advocates for proposing that rule, which prohibits across-the-board, categorical bans on transgender athletes, but does allow schools flexibility to set their own standards for barring transgender athletes from female-designated sports teams.
Donald Trump has vowed to reverse the Title IX guidance “on day one” of his presidency if he retakes the White House.
“The Biden Title IX rule will be the end of girls’ sports,” U.S. Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), the disapproval resolution’s primary sponsor. “We must pray for a return to the Trump administration policies that protected our girls from these vile left-wing people and their agenda.”
Democrats criticized the resolution, calling it discriminatory. They noted that repealing Title IX would also strip away strengthened protections for pregnant students, students with children, and victims of sexual harassment and assault, all of which would benefit cisgender female students as well.
“While Republicans claim that this resolution is in the interest of women’s rights, their proposed solution will make the situation worse for female students,” U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), a co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said in a statement. “What overturning this rule does is exacerbate existing inequalities, prevent any future administration from enacting a similar rule, then place the blame solely on the LGBTQI+ community. It is shortsighted, petty, and cruel.”
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