The new rule expands the definition of sex discrimination but doesn’t address transgender athletes’ participation in school sports
LGBTQ+ students will receive explicit legal protection from sex discrimination and harassment under a long-awaited revision of Title IX rules the Biden administration released Friday, April 19, nearly two years after it originally proposed the overhaul.
The revised regulations for Title IX, the law outlawing sex discrimination at federally funded schools, expand the definition of sex-based discrimination and harassment to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sex stereotypes, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.
The U.S. Department of Education already interprets Title IX to include protection against discrimination based on gender identity and sexuality due to the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga., that federal employment law prohibits that type of discrimination. But the new rules make that explicit under Title IX without room for interpretation otherwise.
