Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration Monday for expanding federal sex discrimination protections under Title IX to include LGBTQ+ students.
Title IX is a sweeping civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination at federally funded colleges and K-12 schools. The Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX rules, which came earlier this month, redefines sex-based harassment to cement protections for LGBTQ and pregnant students.
Paxton joins a number of Republican leaders across the country who have sued to block the change from taking effect.
“Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology,” Paxton wrote in a Monday statement. “This attempt to subvert federal law is plainly illegal, undemocratic, and divorced from reality. Texas will always take the lead to oppose Biden’s extremist, destructive policies that put women at risk.”
The Biden administration’s updates to the Title IX regulations were in response to a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case related to workplace discrimination. The high court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII — a civil rights law that bars employment discrimination on the basis of sex — applied to gay and transgender workers.
The revised Title IX rules define sex-based harassment to include harassment based on sex stereotypes, pregnancy and related conditions, as well as gender identity and sexual orientation. It codifies initial guidance documents, which the attorney general’s office had previously sued the Biden administration over.
From The Texas Tribune
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