The new Title IX rules expanded the definition of sex-based harassment. Gov. Greg Abbott is also suing the Biden administration to block the changes.
Zany: Just when you think Republicans couldn’t get any more hateful and disgusting, Gov. Greg Abbott steps rolls up and says, “Hold my beer.” To actively go out of your way to block protections for students just because you disagree with who they love is beyond hate. I feel hypocritical saying this because I hate Greg Abbott!
Gov. Greg Abbott
This letter confirms my claim that Conservatives do not understand the difference between sex and gender. It’s beyond frustrating to have a conversation with someone on the right about their transphobic hate rampage. We can now include their hatred for the LGBTQ+ community in general. To deny protection from sexual discrimination and abuse just because you personally don’t like their lifestyle is beyond hateful and running straight into cruelty!
Yet they will cry all day long about “Big Tech” and Zuckerberg “censoring” Conservative voices because the liberal social media platforms don’t agree with their “political ideology.” No, it’s because you’re spreading disinformation and lies about COVID and vaccines and the winner of the 2020 election! Those things don’t constitute an ideology, they are lies that cause people to DIE and engage in insurrection by breaking into the Capitol and killing police officers.
Here’s the full story from Sneha Dey of the Texas Tribune:
The new Title IX rules expanded the definition of sex-based harassment. Paxton said the change distorted the original intent of the law.
The Biden administration recently revised the rules for Title IX, the sweeping civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination at federally funded colleges and K-12 schools. The new rules, which are set to go into effect in August, redefined sex discrimination and sex-based harassment to prevent misconduct based on sex stereotypes, pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation. It codifies initial guidance documents that prompted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to sue the Biden administration last year.
“Congress wrote Title IX to protect women. Biden, with no authority to do so, rewrote Title IX to protect men who identify as women,” Abbott wrote Monday on social media platform X.
Abbott’s order came the same day Paxton announced he had sued the Biden administration Monday to block the Title IX changes. Texas joins a growing number of Republican-led states that have berated the new rules, setting the stage for a legal fight over LGBTQ+ student protections. They say the Biden administration misinterpreted the intent of Title IX.
In its final interpretation of Title IX, the Biden administration sought to extend a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case decision related to workplace discrimination to students. The high court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII, a civil rights law that bars employment discrimination on the basis of sex, applied to gay and transgender workers.
The Title IX changes also walk back rules set during the Trump administration that required “live hearings” in which students accused of sexual misconduct could question accusers in a courtroom-like setting. The Biden administration kept Trump-era provisions that allow informal resolutions and prohibit penalties against students until an investigation is complete.
This article in this post was originally published on the Texas Tribune website and parts of it are republished here, with permission under a Creative Commons license.