Alliance Defending Freedom joined thousands of parents Sunday in strongly objecting to the Biden administration’s attempt to rewrite Title IX when it submitted five formal comments to the proposed amendments.
A civil rights law established in 1972 to prohibit sex-based discrimination in schools, the Biden administration is seeking to rewrite Title IX to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
The controversial proposals “would compel schools to treat students as whatever sex they prefer —without parents’ knowledge or consent” and have incited more than 210,000 comments as of Monday.
In a letter to Biden Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Katherine L. Anderson, senior counsel for ADF’s Director of the Center of Parental Rights, said that school districts across the country are implementing policies that require staff to ask students their preferred name and pronouns, without the knowledge of parents or guardians.
“Redefining ‘sex discrimination’ to include gender-identity discrimination undermines parental rights and exposes children to the risk of long-term harms,” Anderson wrote.
“The implications of such policies are clear: School districts are enabling students to lead double lives — using one name and set of pronouns at school and another at home, without their parents’ knowledge and consent,” she continued. “The lack of parental knowledge is no accident. The purpose of these policies is to cut parents out of decisions about their children until school officials have decided that they will approach their child’s desire to live as the opposite sex the way that school officials want them to approach it.”
In addition to being unconstitutional, Biden’s amendments to Title IX would “proliferate” these types of policies in school districts, the attorney wrote.
“Policies like the proposed rule that ignore biological reality — ignore sex — pose serious risks to student health and safety and undermine the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children,” Anderson said. “And the U.S. Supreme Court has long held that the Constitution safeguards that right.”
The ADF lawyer also outlined how the proposed changes would supplant parents in other areas such as curriculum and use of school facilities.
“The proposed rule likely also grants children an absolute right to use school facilities and participate in activities ‘consistent with their gender identity,’ regardless of whether their parents agree or are even aware of that identity,” Anderson wrote. “Schools will feel free to allow students to select the sex-separated restrooms, overnight field trip accommodations, camp cabins, locker rooms, and other intimate facilities of their choice and based on their gender identity, not their sex — without parental knowledge or prior approval.”
Education Department official Catherine E. Lhamon told Fox News Digital that the department appreciates “each of the commenters for taking the time to share views about the proposed amendments to the Department’s Title IX regulations.”
“We look forward to reviewing each and every comment to help inform the development of the final regulations,” she added.
When it revealed the proposed amendments on June 23, the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the Department of Education said, “The regulations … will strengthen protections for LGBTQI+ students who face discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”