At Winnfield Rotary Club’s meeting on Wednesday, May 15, Rotarian Al Simmons, Winn Parish School Superintendent, brought Rotarians’ attention to a lawsuit recently filed by the Louisiana Attorney General, asking U. S. Courts to strike down new rules recently established by the U.S. Department of Education in the application of the law commonly referred to as Title IX.

Mr. Simmons explained that Title IX is a provision of the education statutes in the United States Code passed a little over 50 years ago prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex or gender in any federally funded education program or activity. Implementation of the statute has primarily received notice in the area of sports, as it results in women’s sports receiving funding equal to men’s sports.

According to Simmons, federal laws enacted by Congress are implemented and enforced by the executive branch—in this case, the U.S. Department of Education [DOE]. The Department issues the federal regulations by which it deems the law should be implemented. Any dispute related to the interpretation of the law by the DOE is left to the federal courts to resolve.

The Department of Education recently revised the regulations implementing Title IX to state that gender identity is a protected class under Title IX, just as one’s actual physical gender is. This is the main regulation in dispute in the lawsuit. 

Simmons explained that the policy in Winn Parish schools is to treat every child and employee decently regardless of one’s gender or gender identity. Observing that principle would ordinarily result in compliance with Title IX. However, the DOE’s recent re-interpretation of the statute including gender identity in Title IX’s protections against discrimination creates difficulties for most school districts in the state. 

This primarily concerns restroom facilities in buildings constructed before Title IX was enacted and long before gender identity began to receive attention. Restrooms for males were constructed with only a few areas of privacy, much less than that provided for female facilities. Accommodation of gender identity in school facilities and assurance of the comfort of all students would require renovation of restroom facilities in every school building in every school district. Such renovations would be excessively expensive and not feasible for most school districts. 

Hence, numerous school boards in Louisiana sought representation of the Attorney General in pursuing a lawsuit against the DOE seeking to have the new regulations struck down, and to have Congress resolve the issue by clarifying the intent of Congress in enacting Title IX. The Winn Parish School Board was not able to meet within the time required for formally becoming a plaintiff in the suit, but it has passed a resolution in support of the Attorney General’s filing of the lawsuit.

Regarding the controversial gender identity issues currently witnessed in women’s sports competition across the nation, the DOE deferred, saying its Final Rule would not apply to the sports sector at this point.