17 GOP State Attorneys General Say Biden’s Title IX Rewrite Jeopardizes Women’s Progress, Safety

A Biden administration proposed rewrite of the landmark Title IX ban on discrimination in public school classrooms and athletic fields will repeal five decades of women’s progress in education and subject female athletes to physical injury and sexual assault, according to a coalition of 17 Republican state attorneys general.

In a withering 37-page critique of the Department of Education’s proposal to replace the biological definition of sex with “gender identity,” the attorneys general, led by Montana’s Austin Knudsen, submitted their comment letter in the final hours of a lengthy public comment period that ended Sept. 12 at midnight.

The 60-day comment period saw nearly 250,000 elected officials, school administrators and teachers, nonprofit advocates, public interest law firms and private citizens view the department’s proposal, with many then submitting often detailed and impassioned analyses.

The total comment count will be made public by the government when the published version of the proposal in the Federal Register is updated.

A proposed revision to Title IX in 2020 generated in excess of 124,000 comments.

While the state attorneys general addressed every major component of the proposal, a primary focus of their analyses was the projected impact of the federal statute’s revision on women in schools and athletics, both adults and students.

“The department’s proposed rule defeats the entire original purpose of Title IX and will have a devastating impact on women’s athletics. Since its enactment in 1972, Title IX has led to an important increase in athletic opportunity for girls and women in sports,” the attorneys general wrote.

“In the name of equity, the proposed rule travels backward to a pre-Title IX era when schools had no obligation to provide equal, safe, and fair athletic opportunities for women and girls.

“It mandates open access to every education program and activity based on the amorphous

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