TOPEKA, Kan. – A federal rule expanding anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ students has been blocked in four states and elsewhere by a federal judge in Kansas.
In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Broomes suggested the Biden administration should now consider whether mandatory compliance is “worth the effort.”
It was Broomes decision against the third rule from a federal judge in less than three weeks, but more extensive than others. This includes Alaska, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, which have all been sued new rule. It also applies to Stillwater, Oklahoma, a high school that is suing a student over the rule, and to members of three groups that support Republicans’ nationwide efforts to roll back LGBTQ rights. They are all involved in a fight.
Broomes, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, directed three groups — Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation and United Sportswomen — to provide a list of schools where their members’ children attend, so that their schools are also ineligible. the rule. Republican Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who defended the states’ lawsuit before Broomes last month, said it could be thousands of schools.
The Biden administration’s rule will take effect in August under the 1972 Civil Rights Act, Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education. Broomes’ order must remain in effect through the lawsuit’s trial in Kansas, although the judge concluded that the states and the three groups would prevail.
And the Republicans argued that it was the rule represents a trick The Biden administration’s allowing transgender women to play on girls’ and women’s sports teams, Something prohibited or restricted in Kansas and at least 24 other states. The management said that this is not related to athletics. Opponents of the rule also framed the issue as protecting the privacy and safety of women and girls in bathrooms and locker rooms.
“Gender ideology does not belong in public schools, and we’re glad the courts made the right call to uphold parents’ rights,” said Moms for Liberty co-founders Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice.
LGBTQ youth, their parents, health care providers and others say restrictions on transgender youth harm their mental health and make the often-marginalized group even more vulnerable. The Department of Education has previously stood its ground, and President Joe Biden has pledged to protect LGBTQ rights.
The Education Ministry did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Tuesday.
In addition to Broomes, two other federal judges issued rulings in mid-June blocking the new rule in 10 other states. The rule would protect LGBTQ students in schools and colleges by expanding the definition of sexual harassment and adding safety measures for victims.
Like the other justices, Broomes called the rule arbitrary, concluding that the Department of Education and its secretary, Miguel Cardona, exceeded the authority granted by Title IX. It also concluded that the rule violates the free speech and religious freedom rights of parents and students who reject transgender students’ gender identities and want to defend those views in school or elsewhere in public.
Broomes said his 47-page order “leaves it up to the Biden administration to first determine whether proceeding with this decision is worth the effort.”
Broomes also said the rule could harm the privacy and safety of non-transgender students. He cited an Oklahoma high school student who said that “in some cases” cisgender boys use the girls’ bathroom “because they know they can get away with it.”
“It is not difficult to imagine that, under the Final Rule, a working-age teenager could pass himself off as a woman to gain access to girls’ showers, locker rooms, or changing rooms, so he could observe his female peers undressing. and shower,” Broomes wrote, echoing a common but largely false narrative of anti-trans activists about gender identity and how schools accommodate transgender students.