Foxx lashes out against Title IX rewrite

On Friday, Congresswoman Virginia Fox, R-NC, issued a statement following the Department of Education’s rewrite of Title IX, which would expand the definition of “sex” to include “gender identity.” Title IX changes will take effect on August 1, 2024, and will rewrite a law instituted in 1972. 

“The Department of Education has placed Title IX, and the decades of advancement and protections for women and girls that it has yielded, squarely on the chopping block,” said Congresswoman Foxx in a press release. “This final rule dumps kerosene on the already raging fire that is Democrats’ contemptuous culture war that aims to radically redefine sex and gender. The rule also undermines existing due process rights, placing students and institutions in legal jeopardy and again undermining the protections Title IX is intended to provide. Evidently, the acceptance of biological reality, and the faithful implementation of the law, are just pills too big for the Department to swallow – and it shows.”

The language of the Title IX rewrite broadens the definition of sex to include “gender identity” rather than being restricted to biological sex. 

“The Department therefore issues these final regulations to provide greater clarity regarding: the definition of ‘sex-based harassment’; the scope of sex discrimination, including recipients’ obligations not to discriminate based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or pregnancy related conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity and recipients’ obligations to provide an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex,” states the Titles IX rewrite, which was released on Friday. 

This rewrite would ironically endanger the very minority that it was instituted to protect. 

“The Biden administration’s radical redefinition of sex turns back the clock on equal opportunity for women, threatens student safety and privacy, and undermines fairness in women’s sports,” Rachel Rouleau, legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), said in a statement. It is a slap in the face to women and girls who have fought long and hard for equal opportunities. The administration continues to ignore biological reality, science, and commonsense, and women are suffering as a result. The administration’s new regulation will have devastating consequences on the future of women’s sports, student privacy, and parental rights, which is why Alliance Defending Freedom plans to take action to defend female athletes, as well as school districts, teachers, and students who will be gravely harmed by this unlawful government overreach.”

Kristen Waggoner, president, CEO, and general counsel for ADF Legal and ADF International, responded in a tweet on Friday. 

When the administration first proposed the Title IX change in late 2023, the ADF issued a statement urging President Biden to reconsider and withdraw the proposal to protect female athletes. 

Similarly, Betsy Devos, Secretary of Education under the Trump Administration, responded as well. 

The rewrite would also mean that single-sex spaces, such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and dorms, would be single-sex no longer. 

Under the rewrite, female athletes would no longer be protected from competing against male athletes or sharing a space with them. Kylee Alons, a swimmer from NC State, who filed a class action lawsuit against the NCAA for this very reason, as reported by the Carolina Journal earlier this year. 

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