Trump’s Title IX Announcement Is Cruel. But It Does Not Change The Law

As much as President Trump may suggest that he can rewrite Title IX, that is not within the power of the executive. Title IX itself still prohibits sex discrimination in education, and the Supreme Court has held that it is impossible to discriminate against someone for being gay or transgender without discriminating on the basis of sex. Unless and until the Supreme Court says otherwise, this general proposition still stands, which means LGBTQ students retain protections under federal civil rights law. 

To be sure, earlier this year the Supreme Court permitted the exclusion of transgender students in the unique, zero-sum, context of sports, where, it said, states and schools may exclude transgender women and girls from women’s and girls’ sports. But neither that decision nor the now-revived 2020 Title IX regulations says that schools must exclude transgender girls from girls’ sports. And, outside of sports, both federal and local protections for LGBTQ students remain valid and fully enforceable. With the administration’s continued cruel anti-trans rhetoric, it is more important than ever that schools do not waver in their commitment to protecting LGBTQ students.