ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis took to social media Thursday to fire back against the Biden administration over revisions to Title IX clarifying that gender identity is included in discrimination protections in schools.
The U.S. Department of Education finalized the changes to the federal regulation last week, which would prohibit public schools and universities from discriminating against students for their gender identity or sexual orientation.
"We will not comply, and we will fight back," the governor said in a video posted to X.
While the move didn't come directly from the White House, President Joe Biden had been facing pressure from LGBTQ+ organizations to protect queer, and particularly transgender, communities as states enact laws impacting their access to health care, legal gender changes and ability to use preferred pronouns.
The final changes bring into question whether some of Florida's laws, specifically the ones that apply to students and schools, will hold up under the updated Title IX language.
DeSantis said the state of Florida will not be reevaluating its laws on how sexual orientation and gender identity are addressed in schools. Instead, he said his administration will be ignoring the revisions.
"We are not going to let Joe Biden try to inject men into women's activities," DeSantis said. "We are not going to let Joe Biden undermine the rights of parents."
What do the Title IX revisions do?
Title IX is a civil rights law enacted in 1972 that prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational programs. It was created as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in response to the lack of equal representation and treatment for women and girls in K-12 schools and higher education.
In the 1,577-page filing, the U.S. Department of Education states that schools and universities that get public, federal funding must abide by Title IX.
It makes clear that gender identity and sexual orientation are to be included in the definition of 'sex-based' discrimination.
Unrelated to the governor's comments but still notable: The revisions also do away with Trump-era provisions to Title IX that narrowed the definition of sexual harassment and required colleges to investigate claims only if they're first reported to certain officials, like filing a police report.
What happens if Florida doesn't comply with the changes?
If a Florida law is found to violate Title IX, the law cannot be enforced and must be struck down.
The only way to officially determine that a state law violates Title IX is through a decision from a federal judge. So, under the new revisions, groups and individuals who feel a certain state law discriminates against them based on sexual orientation or gender identity can file a federal lawsuit and argue to a judge that the law must be struck down because it goes against Title IX.
In fact, that argument has already played out in Florida.
On March 8, the state of Florida settled a Title IX lawsuit challenging what's known as the 'Don't Say Gay' law. The group suing the DeSantis administration said the law was too vague and broad, saying it left up to question if any and all discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation was not allowed in schools. The settlement refined the Florida law to only apply to instructional lessons and clarified that it also applies to heterosexual identity.
A federal appeals court also recently blocked a West Virginia law banning transgender girls from playing school sports, finding it violates Title IX. A similar lawsuit against Florida's version of that law, the 'Fairness in Women's Sports Act', was upheld, with that court finding no Title IX violations.
Evidently, courts have decided differently on how they interpret sex-based discrimination under Title IX, and the only way to reach a consensus is for the Supreme Court to decide.
It may be a case that could soon reach the highest court in the country as it's a question that has yet to be answered.
Attorneys and politicians who argue sex-based discrimination includes gender identity and sexual orientation often cite a particular 2020 Supreme Court decision. In a 6-3 vote, the majority of justices ruled that Title VII, a different provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, protects people from discrimination based on sexual and gender identity in the workplace. While many feel that decision can be applied to schools as well, the court has never explicitly ruled on the matter.
What now?
The revised regulations will go into effect on August 1, 2024.
However, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said she's planning to fight the recent changes in court, and several other Republican administrations in other states have said the same.
It wouldn't be the first time GOP-controlled states sued the Biden administration over efforts to protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination.
In 2022, a group of more than 20 Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over a directive to essentially do the same thing these latest revisions outline. A federal judge in Tennessee issued a temporary injunction against the enforcement of the directive, saying that it infringes on states' rights to make laws. The judge said any such directives should be up to Congress to pass.
Governor Ron DeSantis seemed to have the same argument about last week's regulatory Title IX filing.
"...we are not going to let Joe Biden abuse his constitutional authority to try to impose these policies on us here in Florida," he said. "We are not going to going to let Biden get away with it. We will not comply."
We are most likely to see this issue play out in a courtroom once again, and with all of the conflicting rulings and decisions from different judges on the matter, it's likely to be a lengthy court battle that may end up at the Supreme Court.
