On day one of his presidency, Joe Biden plans to reinstate Obama-era Title IX regulations that allow transgender students to choose the bathroom or locker room of their preference.
The Trump administration revoked the guidance in 2017, arguing that Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex, not gender identity, and that the Obama administration was attempting to rewrite the definition of “sex” by allowing transgender students to use gender identity as a legal front.
But now that Biden is back in the White House, his administration plans to put the Title IX rule change back in its place.
“On his first day in office, Biden will reinstate the Obama-Biden guidance revoked by the Trump-Pence Administration, which will restore transgender students’ access to sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity,” Biden’s campaign website states. “He will direct his Department of Education to vigorously enforce and investigate violations of transgender students’ civil rights.”
Under the Obama-era rule, all schools receiving federal funds must allow transgender students to use whichever bathroom and locker room they choose or risk having their funding withdrawn.
Several states sued the Obama administration over the directive when it was first implemented, arguing that it tramples on states’ rights and creates a new protected right where there is none.
“Current state law and federal regulations allow schools to maintain separate facilities based upon sex,” Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson explained at the time. “The recent action by these two federal agencies to require showers, locker rooms, and bathrooms be open to both sexes based solely on the student’s choice, circumvents this established law by ignoring the appropriate legislative process necessary to change such a law. It also supersedes local school districts’ authority to address student issues on an individualized, professional and private basis.”
This is just one of several executive orders Biden plans to sign on his first day of office.
The others include calling for a nationwide face mask mandate on federal property, rejoining the World Health Organization, extending evictions and foreclosure moratoriums, and rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement.
