PRESS RELEASE: Diverse Coalition Urges Biden Administration to Protect Women’s Sports, Due Process, and Survivors’ Rights in Title IX

WASHINGTON—In an open letter to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Education (ED), a diverse coalition of more than two dozen organizations representing education policy experts, public interest lawyers, civil rights leaders, women, and thousands of parents and concerned citizens urged ED to end its current rulemaking under Title IX. The Biden Administration is poised to publish a proposed rule this month that will unwind the current regulation that was published in 2020, as well as propose a new definition of “sex” under Title IX that would demolish 50 years of progress in women’s sports in schools, colleges, and universities and erode the rights of parents in K-12 schools.

The coalition letter to ED explains why there is no reason to re-write the current Title IX rule. The current 2020 rule protects survivors by recognizing for the first time that sexual harassment, including sexual assault, constitutes unlawful sex discrimination under Title IX. It also ensures due process in campus grievance proceedings, protects free speech and academic freedom, and clarifies an institution’s entitlement to a religious exemption under Title IX. The 2020 rule has withstood numerous legal challenges in a variety of jurisdictions.

 “There is absolutely no reason to re-write the current Title IX rule, an historic regulation that protects survivors and requires due process for the accused,” said Bob Eitel, President of the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies, which organized the coalition letter. “It appears that the Administration has allowed interest groups with extreme ideological agendas to commandeer the Title IX rulemaking process. Americans who have cheered the progress in women’s sports over the last 50 years, as well as supporters of parents’ rights in K-12 and due process, free speech, and religious liberty on campus, should be very concerned.”

To read the full text of the letter sent to Catherine E. Lhamon, Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education and view the list of coalition members, click here.