Kentucky court protects 6 states from Biden admin’s pro-LGBT Title IX changes
CV NEWS FEED // A Kentucky court this week temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s pro-LGBT Title IX changes from going into effect in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia.
On June 17, Chief Judge Danny Reeves of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky issued a preliminary injunction in a ruling on State of Tennessee v. Cardona.
Reeves’ injunction comes just days after a Louisiana court also temporarily stopped the Biden administration’s new interpretations of Title IX from being implemented in four other states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Idaho, and Montana.
The Department of Education announced the pro-LGBT rewrite of Title IX in April. As CatholicVote previously reported, “Instead of protecting young girls, the Title IX changes will redefine ‘sex’ to include the ‘gender identity’ which would allow each individual to define their sex as ‘an individual’s sense of their gender.’”
The June 17 ruling highlighted that the Title IX change deprives women and girls of access to privacy in spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms.
The ruling stated that “despite society’s enduring recognition of biological differences between the sexes, as well as an individual’s basic right to bodily privacy,” the Biden administration’s new rule “mandates that schools permit biological men into women’s intimate spaces, and women into men’s, within the educational environment based entirely on a person’s subjective gender identity.”
“It is an inescapable conclusion based on the foregoing discussion that the Department has effectively ignored the concerns of parents, teachers, and students who believe that the Final Rule endangers basic privacy and safety interests,” the ruling reads.
The ruling also stated that the Biden administration’s rewrite “has serious First Amendment implications,” pointing out: “The rule includes a new definition of sexual harassment which may require educators to use pronouns consistent with a student’s purported gender identity rather than their biological sex.”
The ruling added that “educators likely would be required to use students’ preferred pronouns regardless of whether doing so conflicts with the educator’s religious or moral beliefs. A rule that compels speech and engages in such viewpoint discrimination is impermissible.”
The ruling described the Department of Education’s Title IX rewrite as “arbitrary and capricious” and noted that the administration did not “provide a reasoned explanation” for the change.
“Notably, the Department does not provide a sufficient explanation for leaving regulations in place that conflict with the new gender-identity mandate, nor does it meaningfully respond to commentors’ concerns regarding risks posed to student and faculty safety,” the ruling stated.
Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced the KY court’s decision in a June 17 post to his X account.
“The Biden Administration’s latest power grab would jeopardize half a century of landmark protections for women, violate the First Amendment, and ignore the clear text of the Title IX law passed by Congress,” Miyares wrote. “The rule should have never been issued in the first place.”
