Kentucky sues Biden administration over new Title IX rules protecting LGBTQ students

Republican attorneys general in Kentucky and five other states sued the U.S. Department of Education Tuesday contesting an “outrageous” rule change to Title IX that broadens the definition of sex-based discrimination to include protections for LGBTQ+ people.

Ratified in 1972, Title IX bans sex-based harassment and discrimination against students and employees in federally-funded education settings, including in public K-12 schools, colleges and universities and associated athletics.

The Biden Administration’s proposed rule changes released earlier this month extend the law’s application to prohibit discrimination and harassment based on gender identity, sexual orientation and sex characteristics.

Attorneys general in Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Indiana filed a joint 83-page lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky Tuesday, arguing that such changes will impede on “practices to protect student privacy, perversely hamper fair competition in women’s sports, and punish states for following their laws.”

Couched as a means of protecting “equal opportunities in education and athletics for women,” Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said Tuesday that the overhaul would “rip away 50 years of Title IX’s protections for women and put entire generations of young girls at risk.”

“It’s wrong, and we are joining our colleagues in Tennessee to lead this fight for our daughters, granddaughters, nieces and all the women of our Commonwealth,” Coleman said in a press release. “As Attorney General, it is my duty to protect the people of Kentucky. As a dad, it is my duty to protect my daughters. Today, I do both.”

Five other Republican-led states, including Texas, South Carolina and Florida, have also sued as a means of stopping implementation of Title IX’s expansion, which is slated to take effect August 1.

“Every student deserves educational opportunity free from discrimination,” the U.S. Department of Education said in a press release earlier this month, lauding the new regulations as promoting “educational equity and opportunity for students across the country, as well as accountability and fairness while empowering and supporting students and families.”

But Republicans have widely criticized applying the federal law that protects against sex-based discrimination law to also protecting transgender individuals from discrimination. They argue the law should only apply to “biological” sex and the new rule “fundamentally alters the meaning of Title IX’s bar on sex discrimination,” the complaint notes.

The new rules declare “sex is an expansive concept whose bounds it need not define.” Under the Department’s new rules, unlawful sex discrimination would apply to “discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The six attorneys general argue the rule change’s “distorted definition of sex has radical ramifications,” including for the use of distinctly gendered school restrooms and locker rooms.

If a trans student wants to use a restroom that corresponds with their gender identity, schools could not disallow it, they argue, since “drawing these lines is (now) illegal discrimination.”

While the expanded regulations provide hefty protections for LGBTQ individuals, the new Title IX doesn’t touch sports teams. A second proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Education deals with sex-related eligibility for male and female sports teams.

Republican-controlled legislatures across the country, including Kentucky and Tennessee, have passed laws in recent years barring trans girls from playing on middle and high school girls’ athletic teams, a step that Coleman on Tuesday said “upholds the integrity of women’s sports.”

Kentucky’s Senate Bill 83, passed into law in 2022 over Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto, requires the Kentucky Board of Education and the Kentucky High School Athletic Association to establish that “an athletic activity or sport designated as ‘girls’ shall not be open to members of the male sex,” and any student who “suffers any direct or indirect harm” because of a violation could sue for damages.

Kentucky Republicans have also codified further measures to limit the rights of transgender students.

In 2023, with the passage of Senate Bill 150, the state banned gender-affirming health care for trans minors, mandated districts create politics that prevent trans students from using restrooms or locker rooms that align with their gender identity, stops districts from asking teachers to use a trans student’s pronouns and restricts classroom teaching on gender and sexuality.

Trans kids and their families have sued, challenging two portions of the law: one takes aim at the prohibition on gender-affirming medical care, including access to hormone therapy and puberty blockers, and the other challenges the restrictions on trans students in educational settings.

Doe v. Thornbury, Kentucky’s lawsuit filed by seven trans kids and their families last year contesting the ban on medical care, was consolidated with a similar lawsuit from Tennessee plaintiffs, L.W. v. Skrmetti, challenging the Volunteer State’s version of the ban.

Plaintiffs in both cases have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block enforcement of both laws, but the high court has yet to decide whether it will hear the cases.

The families suing argue, in part, that both states’ categorical bans based on their status as trans people “explicitly discriminates on the basis of sex.”