Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday directed the state’s education agency to bypass a revised anti-discrimination law from President Joe Biden’s administration set to go into effect on Aug. 1.
Since 1972, Title IX has prohibited discrimination at federally funded schools “on the basis of sex,” but this month the Biden administration announced a more inclusive rewrite of the law to add protections for abuse survivors, students’ parents and LGBTQ+ students.
The law, which has been in the works for more than two years, does not target the politically divisive topic of transgender athletes’ participation in school sports, but it has drawn the ire of Republicans like Abbott who claim Title IX was meant solely to protect cis women.
In a post on social media, Abbott claimed that the revised version of Title IX “tramples” two anti-trans laws in the state — the Save Women’s Sports Act and HB 25 — that prevent transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
“Title IX was written by Congress to support the advancement of women academically and athletically,” Abbott wrote in his letter to Biden. “The law was based on the fundamental premise that there are only two sexes ― male and female.”
“I am instructing the Texas Education Agency to ignore your illegal dictate,” Abbott continued. “Your rewrite of Title IX not only exceeds your constitutional authority, it also tramples laws that I signed to protect the integrity of women’s sports by prohibiting men from competing against female athletes.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, announced Monday that he is bringing a federal lawsuit against the administration in an attempt to challenge Biden’s rewrite.
“Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology,” Paxton said in a Monday press release. “This attempt to subvert federal law is plainly illegal, undemocratic, and divorced from reality.”