By Tori Brawner, YWA Ambassador at Boyce College

On June 23, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed into law Title IX of the Educational Amendments to prevent discrimination between the two sexes in educational activities. This policy not only prohibits sex discrimination, but if a student is sexually assaulted, Title IX requires schools to take action and provide due process. It has had a positive impact for female students to feel safe and protected in their own educational facilities.

Not only this, but this law also included preventing sex discrimination in women’s sports. The transformation of women’s sports in the last 50 years under Title IX cannot be overstated. Prior to Title IX, approximately 300,000 girls competed in high school sports, which was 7% of high school athletes; by 2019, 3.4 million young women played high school sports making up 43% of all high school athletes. Women’s sports are often less funded and receive less coverage, so the equal opportunity guaranteed by law is vital to its success.

However, as the years have passed since 1972, society has also changed. The LGBTQ+ movement has become mainstream, and it is widely accepted that someone can claim their own persona with which they “identify.” The societal narrative being pushed is that everyone must conform to the way they claim to live and require the use of preferred pronouns, even if it denies biological reality and compromises one’s faith. It is overwhelming to even know where to begin; for instance, there are as many as 85 terms of gender classifications such as androgynous, agender, demiboy/girl, gender-fluid, and more (YWA, Gender Identity, pages 12-13).

This has radically infiltrated the education system when it comes to preferred pronouns, locker rooms, and sports teams. Students who identify as transgender or non-binary often seeks the sports teams and single sex spaces that do not match their biological reality. Since there are only two classifications of men and women’s sports, they may not feel included in either, or a male who now identifies as female may not feel welcome in men’s sports. Today, schools have made a range of changes to accommodate these students. However, most of those changes come at the expense of the unique dignity of women.

As part of his presidency, President Joe Biden has worked to upend this policy by including gender identity, not just sex, in Title IX. As stated in Concerned Women for America’s press release after the final Title IX rule change was announced, “Biden’s revision of Title IX removes federal protections ‘on the basis of sex’ that have safeguarded women’s rights and enabled female students to excel in education and sports for nearly 52 years. The final Rule reinterprets the meaning of ‘sex’ with the vague, undefined, subjective category of ‘gender identity,’ thus stripping women and girls of vital protections based on sex under civil rights law.” This means that there will be a violation of privacy in locker rooms, college residency bathrooms, and even in the dormitory rooms, possibly being placed in a female residence hall with a biological male who identifies as female. As for women’s sports, males have the opportunity to join these teams and not only share locker rooms, but also take scholarships from women as well. Teachers will be forced to comply with their students’ preferred pronouns, even if it goes against their Christian values. Not only will this harm both students and teachers, but it also violates parents’ rights to make decisions for their children. When parents put their children in school, they should have the right to raise their own kids and not be forced to watch the school district systems make decisions that violate their children. This drastic changing of the policy will make Title IX go from helpful to dangerous.

However, as of June 17, 2024, Danny Reeves, United States Chief Judge of the Eastern District Court, withheld this policy from going into effect on August 1 as it was intended. His ruling prevents this policy from taking place in six states: Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. In a 93-page document supporting his ruling, the first seven words are “There are two sexes: male and female.” This action was followed by another district judge, Terry A. Doughty, who also has temporarily withheld the policy in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho, calling the removal of Title IX “a threat to democracy.” In Reeves’ document, not only does he call this policy a violation of “government employees’ First Amendment rights,” but also calls it the result of “arbitrary and capricious rulemaking.” This decision made by two judges, along with the several arguments made by the two, shows that not all hope is lost. Reeves knows the dangers that come with the Biden Administration altering this policy and has taken action to ensure this does not happen.

While the societal pressures to tolerate and accept movements that go against God’s Word increase, we can cling to the hope of the Gospel. Romans 12:2 is inspiring amidst chaos in this temporary world, where we daily groan for the day that Christ comes back and will live in a perfect, eternal home: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”