[Wsssc] {Disarmed} FW: Title IX untouched by Supreme Court ruling on LGBTQ rights, Education Department says

Joe Holliday jholliday at sbctc.edu
Tue Sep 8 08:05:54 PDT 2020


Colleagues: FYI below...
Joe
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From: Wilson, Morgan (GOV) <Morgan.Wilson at gov.wa.gov<mailto:Morgan.Wilson at gov.wa.gov>>
Sent: Friday, September 4, 2020 7:59 AM
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Cc: Katims, Casey (GOV) <casey.katims at gov.wa.gov<mailto:casey.katims at gov.wa.gov>>; Potter, Geoff (GOV) <Geoff.Potter at gov.wa.gov<mailto:Geoff.Potter at gov.wa.gov>>
Subject: FYI: Title IX untouched by Supreme Court ruling on LGBTQ rights, Education Department says


FYI





Title IX untouched by Supreme Court ruling on LGBTQ rights, Education Department says

By Bianca Quilantan

09/03/2020 07:58 PM EDT

The Education Department said this summer's Supreme Court ruling on protections for LGBTQ workers will not color its Title IX rules on discriminating based on sex.

The high court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County in June that a key federal law prohibiting discrimination in the workplace protects gay, lesbian or transgender employees from being disciplined or fired based on their sexual orientation. But the Education Department said this week in two revised letters that it does not enforce that law because Congress "specifically" designed it "to apply only to workplaces."

The department's Office of Civil Rights further contended that the Supreme Court ruling would back up the Trump administration's interpretation of Title IX.

"Even if Bostock applied to Title IX - a question the Supreme Court expressly declined to address - its reasoning would only confirm that Title IX does not permit a biologically male student to compete against females on a sex-segregated team or in a sex-segregated league," wrote Kimberly Richey, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department.

Following the June ruling, the Education Department said it would review the decision on LGBTQ workplace rights. It was widely believed the ruling could affect the Trump administration's stances on rules for transgender students.

In 2017, the Education Department scrapped an Obama-era directive<https://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-administration-scraps-obama-transgender-rights-directive-235285?source=email> aimed at protecting transgender students' rights under Title IX, the law banning sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, "on the basis of sex."

According to the department's Office of Civil Rights, the agency "possesses jurisdiction" over Title IX complaints from LGBTQ students if they are discriminated against on the basis of their biological sex because of their sexual orientation.

"Title IX does not mention discrimination on the basis of a student's sexual orientation," Richey wrote.

But the Supreme Court's opinion "guides" the department's Office of Civil Rights' "understanding that discriminating against a person based on their homosexuality or identification as transgender generally involves discrimination on the basis of their biological sex," she said.

The department also reiterated in a letter this week that education officials in Connecticut violated Title IX by allowing transgender students to participate on women's sports teams.

In May, the department had threatened Connecticut's high school sports authority and a half dozen local school boards with legal action or a loss of funding, after concluding their adherence to a state transgender athlete policy violated federal sexual discrimination laws.

Title IX requires schools to have separate-sex athletics based on biological differences, the Education Department wrote in explaining why it will continue with its enforcement action against the Connecticut school districts to prevent transgender students from participating on sports teams that match their gender identity.

"The Court's opinion in Bostock also does not affect the Department's position that its regulations authorize single-sex teams based only on biological sex at birth - male or female - as opposed to a person's gender identity," Richey wrote.

The letters follow two victories for transgender students. Last week, an appeals court ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/26/court-yes-transgender-rights-gavin-grimm-bathroom-402532?source=email>, a transgender man who sued his Virginia high school for barring him from using the boys restroom.

The court ruled that it is unconstitutional and a violation of Title IX for schools to prohibit students from using the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

Last month, an Idaho judge temporarily blocked a state law that bars transgender women<https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/17/trump-backed-transgender-athlete-ban-paused-in-idaho-397495?source=email> from participating in school sports and requires testing if an athlete's sex is in question. The judge wrote that those suing Idaho over the law "are likely to succeed in establishing the Act is unconstitutional as currently written."




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