TEXAS, USA — A federal judge last week granted a temporary injunction, blocking expanded Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students from taking effect in August in Texas.
The changes to Title IX, announced by the U.S. Department of Education in April, clarify that it also protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Title IX is a law introduced in 1972 that bans discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance. The expanded protections were set to take effect Aug. 1.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk wrote that the changes “inverts the text, history, and tradition of Title IX: the statute protects women in spaces historically reserved to men; the final rule inserts men into spaces reserved to women.”
“The Department now upends a half-century of reliance interests through its newest regulation,” Kacsmaryk continued. “Texas law protects sex separation in K-12 and higher education athletic programs….Political subdivisions extend this biological-sex mandate into intimate facilities. For example, the Carroll, Frisco, and Grapevine– Colleyville Independent School Districts require schools owned or operated by the districts to separate bathrooms, locker rooms, shower rooms, and other similar facilities based on biological sex (1) determined at birth and (2) correctly identified on a person’s birth certificate.”
“Pending final resolution of this case, Defendants are therefore enjoined from implementing, enacting, enforcing, or taking any action in any manner to enforce the Final Rule,” the ruling concluded.
Kacsmaryk’s ruling came Thursday, the same day U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor issued a temporary ruling in favor of Carroll ISD in Southlake blocking the expanded Title IX protections from taking effect in the district in August, and the U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure against the same federal rule. That measure passed 210-205 along party lines.
Kacsmaryk’s ruling in Texas makes the Lone Star state the 15th state with an injunction blocking the expanded Title IX protections, including Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s website.
WFAA has reached out to the U.S. Department of Education for comment on the ruling.
In North Texas, Southlake Carroll ISD filed a lawsuit challenging the Title IX changes in May. The district is represented in the case by the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which also worked to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Also in May, the Carroll ISD board of trustees passed a resolution “denouncing” the changes to Title IX.
Carroll ISD’s lawsuit came shortly after the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) invited the district to negotiate a resolution after it upheld four complaints filed by ex-students who said they faced discrimination based on race, gender, and sexual orientation.