Indiana Part of 19-State Coalition Opposing Proposed Title IX Rule Changes

Attorney General Todd Rokita has announced Indiana is part of a 19-state coalition opposing the Biden administration’s rewrite of Title IX rules.

Biden’s proposals include redefining “sex” to mean “gender identity.”

“Title IX was passed 50 years ago to ensure equal opportunities for women,” Rokita said. “But we cannot effectively protect women’s rights if we refuse to acknowledge that there are, in fact, two biologically distinct sexes.”

The Attorney General expressed his concerns in a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

In the letter, Rokita notes that Title IX’s very purpose has been to prevent discrimination against girls and women and encourage their increased participation in middle school, high school and college athletics.

“Now the Biden administration seeks to codify anti-woman prejudice and undo the very protections for which Title IX was created,” he said.

Biden’s proposed Title IX proposed changes also give greater freedom to school officials, parents and a student’s legal representative to address children’s “gender identity” issues without parents’ knowledge or consent.

“Protecting the rights of parents to direct their children’s upbringing and education is one of my highest priorities,” Rokita said. “That’s another reason I am so passionately opposed to this malicious attack by the Biden administration on Hoosier families.”

Without notifying students’ parents or obtaining parents’ agreement, school officials under the proposed new rules could provide counseling to children about gender identity issues. Further, schools would be able to allow children to choose gender identities different from their sex assigned at birth.

“The total exclusion of parents from these important decision-making processes regarding their own children directly violates Supreme Court precedent from the last 100 years,” Rokita said. “This kind of bureaucratic malpractice cannot stand.”