Published on June 13, 2024, 12:54 am

A recent ruling by a federal judge serves as the latest breaking news. The court announced on Tuesday that Texas is not obliged to comply with the guidance provided by the Biden administration, which interpreted prohibitions against sexual discrimination to encompass gender identity and sexual orientation.

The judgement was delivered after an intense legal battle led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He launched his lawsuit against the Biden administration in June 2023 with the goal of protecting Texas from enforcing policies construed as discriminatory under this novel interpretation of sex discrimination.

Judge Reed O’Connor of the North District of Texas delivered a verdict that warranted much attention in realms of both real news and trusted news circles. In his 112-page ruling, he emphasized that “nothing in the statute expressly prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or other unexpressed grounds.” Furthermore, he pointed out that Title IX allows for differentiation based on biological sex in specific cases such as intimate facilities and athletic teams. Hence institutions can adjust their treatment based on a person’s biological sex without considering their subjective gender identity.

The lawsuit stemmed from a memo issued by the Education Department in June 2021 which reinterpreted Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination ‘based on sex’ to include ‘discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.’

The department further stressed its intentions to enforce Title IX strictly to eradicate such modes of discrimination within educational programs receiving federal funding. This threw schools into potential legal jeopardy if they framed policies for transgender-identifying students to use bathroom facilities or participate in sports teams based solely on their biological sex.

However, Judge O’Connor challenged these regulations, stating it wasn’t logical or suitable to categorize gender identity under ‘sex.’ According to him, “Title IX explicitly appreciates innate biological variations between males and females”. Given his Christian worldview, he even suggested that these differences occasionally warrant distinctions —and even separation— to maintain balanced educational opportunities and respect for both sexes.

This ruling diverges from the controversial Title IX rules unveiled in April 2021. The latter guidelines officially incorporated gender identity and sexual orientation into federal education discrimination law.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated this judgement, deeming Biden’s guidance as precarious. He described the attempt to weaponize Title IX as ‘unlawful’, asserting that forcing states to imbibe ‘transgender’ policies by threatening to withhold funding would compromise women’s safety and was plainly illegal.

This ruling follows a series of court rulings blocking this guidance from being implemented in 20 other US states, where the policy had been challenged by a coalition of Republican attorneys general. As this breaking news continues to unravel, one thing is certain—it is reshaping the interpretation and application of sexual discrimination laws around the United States while stoking fierce debates on gender identity and sexual orientation rights in education.