By Nicole Russell, Human Events
For over 50 years, Title
IX has functioned as an imperfect but still valuable tool through which to help
ensure that men and women are treated equally. Title IX elevated women, not
above men, but to the same bracket, giving them the boost they needed to be
treated equally. Last week, President Joe Biden made good on his campaign
promise and revised Title IX to the detriment and safety of men and women
alike.
Through the Education Department,
the Biden
administration has released new rules which essentially codify
gender identity into the law, equal to sex discrimination. Schools can’t treat
students differently and locker and bathrooms will be based on gender identity.
The rules also loosen sexual assault due process procedures and colleges now
can no longer be required to hold live hearings to allow students to question
one another. Instead, college officials will be able to interview students
separately and schools must use the preponderance of the evidence standard of
proof to show guilt.
“The final regulations will help to ensure that all students receive
appropriate support when they experience sex discrimination and that
recipients’ procedures for investigating and resolving complaints of sex
discrimination are fair to all involved,” the rules say.
Of course, in America,
every student should be treated equally under the law, but Title IX already
exists for that. It is not perfect. People are flawed and so is the legal
system. But Biden’s new rules ensure that practically speaking, transgender
students are also treated as a protected class, with rights that might usurp
male, but especially female, students.
Now, under the new rules, which go into effect August 1, a woman’s right to
safety and privacy in a bathroom, to live with only women in a dorm, or to
compete in sports via an athletic scholarship could all be threatened under the
premise of sex discrimination. This could spark new debates about the right of
a woman to have privacy and safety in places like restrooms and locker rooms.
It seems like it leaves little recourse for women under the new Title IX. These
new rules erase any acknowledgment or protection of sex-based spaces, which is
fundamental to privacy and safety for females.
This is not to claim
that transgender people are inherently predatory or attempting criminal
behavior. Loose policies open up loopholes for predators looking to commit
crimes. We’ve seen this already
in California prisons where transgender females are locked up with other women
and commit crimes.
While Biden did not specifically ban schools from passing policies that protect
female athletes, this rule almost ensures that women will lose more
opportunities at sports scholarships, awards, and competitions, and the spots
will go to transgender competitors who possess superior physiological prowess.
Biden’s inversion of Title IX obliterates scholarships or awards intended for
women only, destroying the original purpose of Title IX in the first place.
We’ve already seen this happening in college and professional athletics from
swimming and track and bicycle racing.
Biden’s erasure of due
process in college for men accused of sex crimes is also unfair and frankly,
discriminatory in its own way. While many allegations of rape are true, and
rape is still the most under-reported
crime, false accusations of
rape do occur and they destroy men’s lives and reputations. Men accused of rape
deserve an unbiased and fair process to defend themselves. Biden’s new rules
could create kangaroo courts full of accusations and bias, not proof and
evidence, destroying any chance of due process, which every student deserves.
Biden chose to protect the rights of transgender people in a way that erases
the distinction between men and women. This will have the effect of reducing
women’s rights altogether, something feminists have fought for, for decades. It
is ironic that some of the most progressive politicians of our time have set in
place policies that set women back many years.
This new rule will
undoubtedly invite legal challenges to Title IX and perhaps questions about the
executive branch’s overreach and consistent attempts to enforce life-altering
policies through government bureaucracies. Shouldn’t these only be reserved for
the will of the people to decide through Congress? Every President does this,
including Republicans, but when does it go too far? Biden’s rule seems actually
less like an attempt to ensure nationwide equality and more of a radical
attempt to shore up the vote of young progressives wrapped up in these issues.
He’ll need them since he’ll be losing moderates and middle-aged voters tired of
his tanking economy and weak stance on foreign policy. But it could come at a
greater cost to the millions of women counting on Title IX to ensure quality
for themselves and their daughters.
