By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – A federal judge in Kentucky on Monday blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from introducing new protections for LGBT students against discrimination in schools and colleges based on their gender identity in six Republican-led states that have rejected the federal rule as unlawfully disputed.
The ruling by Lexington-based U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves brought to 10 the number of states where judges have blocked the U.S. Department of Education’s rule from taking effect on Aug. 1 as scheduled. The rule, issued in April, extends the protections for LGBT students afforded by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 against discrimination “on the basis of sex.”
Republican attorneys general from Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia and West Virginia and an association of Christian educators have filed a lawsuit to block the rule. Reeves sided with the plaintiffs, finding that the rule violated Title IX.
That civil rights law, the judge ruled, was intended to level the educational playing field between men and women by prohibiting discrimination “on the basis of sex” in any education program or activity that receives federal funding.
“In essence, the department would turn Title IX on its head by redefining ‘sex’ to include ‘gender identity,'” wrote Reeves, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush.
The judge said the rule would also violate teachers’ freedom of speech and religion under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by requiring them to use pronouns consistent with a student’s gender identity rather than the biological sex.
The ruling echoed that of another federal judge in Louisiana who on Thursday blocked the rule from taking effect in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho. Lawsuits from 16 other states challenging the rule are still pending.
Republican attorneys general welcomed the ruling. They said the rule requires schools to allow transgender students born male to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms in schools.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said it is abiding by the rule, saying it was drafted “to implement the legal guarantee of Title IX.”
In issuing the rule, the department said it made clear that Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The department cited a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found a ban on sex discrimination in the workplace contained in another law, Title VII, also covered gay and transgender employees.
Courts often rely on interpretations of Title VII when analyzing Title IX, as both laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex.
Before the rule was adopted, the Department of Education issued guidelines granting similar protections to LGBT students. A federal appeals court on Friday declined to overturn a ruling that blocked enforcement of the guideline in 20 states.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Will Dunham and Alexia Garamfalvi)
