Biden admin. rewrites Title IX to allow biological boys in girls’ sports, locker rooms | Eastern North Carolina Now

By Peyton Majors
Christian Action League
April 26, 2024

Christian and conservative leaders are warning that the Biden administration’s new regulation that redefines sex in Title IX to include gender identity will threaten the privacy and safety of girls and women and also devastate women’s sports by allowing biological males to compete.

Title IX is a 1972 law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities. Under the new Department of Education regulations, though, sex discrimination includes discrimination “based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity,” according to a summary on the department’s website.

Furthermore, the new regulations recognize “that preventing a person from participating in a recipient’s education program or activity consistent with their gender identity subjects that person to more than de minimis harm.”

“For more than 50 years, Title IX has promised an equal opportunity to learn and thrive in our nation’s schools free from sex discrimination,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “These final regulations build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming, and respect their rights.”

The new regulations, if not overturned, will impact everything from restrooms and locker rooms to athletic teams. Although the Department of Education claimed the regulations do not apply to sports, critics say the plain language of the new rules means that they clearly do.

“Presumably aware of public opinion, the Biden administration frames its Title IX rewrite as separate from the athletics question, saying it will deal with that issue later,” the editors of the National Review wrote. “But this claim is false. If discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ includes gender identity, why shouldn’t that apply to sports?”

In Connecticut in recent years, two biological boys who identified as girls won a combined 15 girls’ state track titles.

In North Carolina, a high-speed volleyball spike by a transgender-identifying Highlands School player injured a female player for Hiwassee Dam High School. The Highlands School player is a biological male who identifies as female. 

“The new Title IX rule specifically notes that locker rooms and restrooms should be available to users based on gender identity,” the National Review editors wrote. “Women and girls may now be exposed to male genitalia where they once enjoyed privacy.”

The Independent Women’s Forum and Independent Women’s Law Center say they will sue the Biden administration over the new regulations.

“Title IX was designed to give women equal opportunities in academic settings. It forbids discrimination on the basis of ‘sex,’ which it affirms throughout the statute is binary and biological,” IWF said in a statement. “The unlawful Omnibus Regulation re-imagines Title IX to permit the invasion of women’s spaces and the reduction of women’s rights in the name of elevating protections for ‘gender identity,’ which is contrary to the text and purpose of Title IX. This is illegal, and we plan to sue.”

Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League, said he is praying the lawsuit against the Biden administration succeeds.

“By redefining sex within Title IX, the Biden administration threatens the very fabric of fairness and safety for women and girls within our educational institutions,” Creech said. “This radical departure from biological truth not only jeopardizes the integrity of women’s sports but also disregards the diligent efforts of countless women who have fought through the decades for equality. God’s Word reminds us in Genesis 1:27, ‘So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.’

“Our society must uphold the sacredness of this divine design, not succumb to the whims of political agendas,” Creech said. “Furthermore, allowing biological males access to female locker rooms poses serious safety risks and intrudes upon the privacy of females. It undermines the fundamental sense of security and comfort that students deserve in these intimate spaces, while causing emotional distress and violating their rights.”

The Christian Action League, Creech said, “stands firm in defense of female athletes, as well as the fundamental rights of teachers and parents, who are all imperiled by this egregious overreach. Let us not forsake our moral compass nor forsake the truths that have guided us for generations.”

“Substituting God’s established order with our own subjective perceptions is misguided and a grave disservice to our children,” Creech said. “If we continue to promote this nonsense, the impact on the next generation — and their emotional and spiritual wellbeing — will be devastating.”