Happy Friday Rulers! I’m Kat and I’ll be your host for this week’s edition of Women Rule. Some fun facts about me: I am originally from Southern California, home of my beloved dog Scout who I miss dearly. In my free time I enjoy playing video games and taking trips to Compass Coffee to grab an iced oat milk matcha latte. But enough about me, let’s get started! Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos calls the White House’s new Title IX rules “an assault on women and girls,” a statement echoed by other Republican lawmakers such as North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Republican lawmakers from a handful of states have filed lawsuits seeking to block these new rules before their implementation on Aug. 1. Their main argument against the rules: it strips protections for young women and girls. The Biden administration’s long-awaited rules, released on April 19, undo a majority of the Trump-era policies mandating how schools deal with sexual misconduct. The rules include a broader definition of sex-based harassment, demanding that schools take “prompt and effective action” to any sex discrimination in comparison to a much higher bar set by DeVos’ rule. During DeVos’ tenure, misconduct had to be “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive” in order for schools to be required to take action. But changes to handling sexual misconduct are not the main reason why Republican lawmakers are pushing back. For example, instead of using the term “sex,” the rules now refer to “gender identity.” The new rules also codify protections for LGBTQ+ students. Louisiana — as well as Mississippi, Montana and Idaho — are among over 20 states who filed lawsuits against the rules. The states filed a separate suit arguing that the new rules exceed the Education Department’s authority. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, announced the decision to file suit last week, with 17 Louisiana school boards joining as plaintiffs “to defend the rights of women and girls.” “It deprives women and men of privacy for things like using the bathroom, and it subjects women to the threat of violence in spaces that have traditionally been reserved for women like domestic violence shelters, restrooms and locker rooms,” Murrill tells Women Rule in an emailed statement. “So instead of actually protecting women the way that Title IX was originally conceived, it now erases them, threatens them with punishment if they speak out against this travesty of justice and deprives them of the opportunities that Title IX was intended to afford them.” Emma Levine, senior manager of Title IX policy and programs at the nonprofit Know Your IX, which works with students to end gender-based and sexual violence in schools, says that these rules will actually help cement protections for women and girls. “I think folks that are arguing the opposite are coming at this rule from, frankly, a transphobic perspective that erases trans, nonbinary, intersex and gender queer women and girls,” Levine says. Many of the states involved in these suits have previously introduced legislation targeting LGBTQ+ students, such as efforts to dictate discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in schools, trans students’ participation in women and girls’ sports and where trans students can use the bathroom. Levine, who engages largely in anti-sexual violence work, says Republican lawmakers using this reasoning “have not demonstrated a strong track record previously about caring about sexual violence in many cases.” “From the sexual violence space, there are so many other strong policy proposals that do not include discriminating against trans women and girls in bathrooms and locker rooms that we know will improve school safety and campus safety,” Levine says. How these suits play out is yet to be determined, but failure to comply with the new rules could result in a loss of federal funding. Shiwali Patel, director of safe and inclusive schools at the National Women’s Law Center, says there is always a chance that the court could grant a preliminary injunction, which could halt implementation on certain provisions of the rule until the outcome of the case is decided. Levine, who uses she/they pronouns, says they are “feeling very concerned for LGBTQ+ youth, who I think have been waiting for these new rules as a lifeline in a lot of ways.” Suicide rates and instances of bullying among LGBTQ+ young people are abnormally high. According to the Trevor Project, LGBTQ+ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers. In 2021, the organization also found that 52 percent of LGBTQ+ youth enrolled in middle or high school reported being bullied either in person or electronically. Patel says these schools should be doing more to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ students and ensure that they feel safe and welcome. “The attempts by these states to stop the Biden administration from implementing the Title IX rules sends a clear message to LGBTQI+ students that these states are not there to protect them,” Patel says. “They’re willing to compromise federal funding for their educational institutions in order to not protect the rights of LGBTQI+ students.”
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