The U.S. Department of Education rescinded 2024 Title IX regulations that defined “sex discrimination” to include “sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a press release that the restored rule “clears the Biden Administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX from the Code of Federal Regulations.”
In April 2024, then-Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced the addition of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to Title IX. This redefinition of “sex” led to horrible consequences, as McMahon explained: “The Biden Administration’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) pushed schools across the country to illegally allow males to intrude into women’s sports and intimate facilities, and it investigated school staff for using incorrect pronouns or failing to ask students to declare a preferred gender. The Trump Administration has rescinded these agreements.”
Women’s sports advocate Jennifer Sey posted about the Education Department’s actions on X, affirming Title IX says nothing about sexual orientation or gender identity but specifically designed to protect girls and women.
McMahon said that restoring Title IX to prohibit “sex discrimination” restored “the commonsense language promulgated in the first Trump Administration, which we have been enforcing since the first days of the Administration.”
The secretary was referencing a number of actions the administration has taken to protect girls and women’s educational opportunities, including their participation in women’s-only sports and female restrooms, locker rooms and showers.
According to her press release, these actions include:
• “Returning Enforcement to Biological Reality: Within its first two weeks of being in office, the Department returned to enforcing the first Trump Administration’s 2020 Title IX rule, reversing the Biden Administration’s illegal 2024 re-write. This once again aligns Title IX’s sex-based protections with biological reality, not ideological fantasy.
• “Securing Resolution Agreements with Higher Education Institutions: The Department signed resolution agreements, including with the University of Pennsylvania and Wagner College, which obligated them to re-establish sex-separated sports and intimate facilities, restore to females their titles misappropriated by male athletes, and apologize to female athletes for their prior policies allowing sex discrimination.
• “Creating Title IX Special Investigations Team: The Department partnered with the U.S. Department of Justice to create the Title IX Special Investigations Team (Title IX SIT) consisting of expert attorneys and investigators to ensure consistent investigations and expeditious enforcement for Title IX violations.” (Their emphasis.)
That partnership with the DOJ has led to multiple investigations into states, schools and districts that violated Title IX by allowing males into girls and women’s sports and private spaces.
Charges and lawsuits have been filed against many of these, as the Daily Citizen has reported, including: five districts in Northern Virginia, 36 school districts in Illinois, the California Department of Education, San Jose State and Minnesota.
In addition to these actions, the press release noted eight different courts, including two federalcourts, had ruled against including “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in Title IX.
McMahon explained that the recission of the 2024 rule followed these court directives, as well as Congress’ intent in passing Title IX: “Thanks to today’s action, the published Title IX regulations faithfully reflects court orders and Congressional intent—reducing confusion for parents, students, and educational institutions. We will continue to relentlessly champion equal opportunity for all Americans and hold accountable any school or college that violates the rights, privacy, or athletic opportunities of our women and girls.”
Daily Citizen is a news division of Focus on the Family that provides a faith-based perspective to counter the mainstream media’s anti-Christian bias.
