“School districts that don’t respect transgender and nonbinary students’ pronouns or force them to use restrooms that don’t align with their gender identity could be committing federal civil rights violations beginning this fall.
Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced the issuance of a final rule under Title IX to protect people in public schools from sex-based discrimination and harassment. The announcement marks a significant update in federal efforts to combat sex discrimination in federally funded educational institutions. During a call with reporters, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona emphasized the administration’s dedication to ensuring that Title IX effectively serves all students by providing safe, welcoming, and rights-respecting educational environments.”
Read the full piece here
this is really big for us actually
Title IX is a cornerstone of protection for women, girls, and gender/sex minorities in schools, I saw it used so many times in the 17 years I was in school to enact real consequences for sexual harassment. The Obama administration added “guidelines” to include gender identity but they were more like suggestions. This is REAL. All those states and school districts that have passed anti-trans policies in the last few years will HAVE to abide by this. Coming in the wake of things like Nex Benedict’s case, this might actually force schools to pay attention to harassment of LGBT kids. And they’re working on an addendum protecting trans kids’ right to play on the correct sports teams.
I’m… this feels like a tide changing. We’ll see how it plays out on the local level, but I have seen Title IX work in my own life. I know people who have been removed from sports teams or classes, even removed from an entire school because they harassed or assaulted someone. It’s not perfect and I’ve also seen the process fail to fully protect victims. But it’s incredible to me that future queer kids could see their rights considered important like that. Queer rights are intertwined with women’s rights, trans rights are feminism, and it’s actually a big deal that the government is acknowledging that!!
Also, though, if Trump is elected he will try to walk this back. Part of this change is just undoing damage that his education secretary did 6 years ago (including forcing victims trying to invoke Title IX to testify in a live hearing rather than private meetings… about their experience of SEXUAL HARASSMENT… Biden’s changes just removed that part) So I hope we can make progress before that happens, if it does.