Through the Education Department, the Biden administration has released new rules which essentially codify gender identity into the law, equal to sex discrimination. Schools can’t treat students differently and locker and bathrooms will be based on gender identity. The rules also loosen sexual assault due process procedures and colleges now can no longer be required to hold live hearings to allow students to question one another. Instead, college officials will be able to interview students separately and schools must use the preponderance of the evidence standard of proof to show guilt.
“The final regulations will help to ensure that all students receive appropriate support when they experience sex discrimination and that recipients’ procedures for investigating and resolving complaints of sex discrimination are fair to all involved,” the rules say.
Of course, in America, every student should be treated equally under the law, but Title IX already exists for that. It is not perfect. People are flawed and so is the legal system. But Biden’s new rules ensure that practically speaking, transgender students are also treated as a protected class, with rights that might usurp male, but especially female, students.
Now, under the new rules, which go into effect August 1, a woman’s right to safety and privacy in a bathroom, to live with only women in a dorm, or to compete in sports via an athletic scholarship could all be threatened under the premise of sex discrimination. This could spark new debates about the right of a woman to have privacy and safety in places like restrooms and locker rooms. It seems like it leaves little recourse for women under the new Title IX. These new rules erase any acknowledgment or protection of sex-based spaces, which is fundamental to privacy and safety for females.
This is not to claim that transgender people are inherently predatory or attempting criminal behavior. Loose policies open up loopholes for predators looking to commit crimes. We’ve seen this already in California prisons where transgender females are locked up with other women and commit crimes.
While Biden did not specifically ban schools from passing policies that protect female athletes, this rule almost ensures that women will lose more opportunities at sports scholarships, awards, and competitions, and the spots will go to transgender competitors who possess superior physiological prowess. Biden’s inversion of Title IX obliterates scholarships or awards intended for women only, destroying the original purpose of Title IX in the first place. We’ve already seen this happening in college and professional athletics from swimming and track and bicycle racing.
Biden’s erasure of due process in college for men accused of sex crimes is also unfair and frankly, discriminatory in its own way. While many allegations of rape are true, and rape is still the most under-reported crime, false accusations of rape do occur and they destroy men’s lives and reputations. Men accused of rape deserve an unbiased and fair process to defend themselves. Biden’s new rules could create kangaroo courts full of accusations and bias, not proof and evidence, destroying any chance of due process, which every student deserves.
Biden chose to protect the rights of transgender people in a way that erases the distinction between men and women. This will have the effect of reducing women’s rights altogether, something feminists have fought for, for decades. It is ironic that some of the most progressive politicians of our time have set in place policies that set women back many years.
This new rule will undoubtedly invite legal challenges to Title IX and perhaps questions about the executive branch’s overreach and consistent attempts to enforce life-altering policies through government bureaucracies. Shouldn’t these only be reserved for the will of the people to decide through Congress? Every President does this, including Republicans, but when does it go too far? Biden’s rule seems actually less like an attempt to ensure nationwide equality and more of a radical attempt to shore up the vote of young progressives wrapped up in these issues. He’ll need them since he’ll be losing moderates and middle-aged voters tired of his tanking economy and weak stance on foreign policy. But it could come at a greater cost to the millions of women counting on Title IX to ensure quality for themselves and their daughters.
