NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A major showdown with wide-ranging implications is brewing in Louisiana between state and federal governments after the U.S. Department of Education , which protect students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools or educational programs that receive federal funding.
On Friday, President Joe Biden’s administration released its long-awaited final Title IX regulations, which, in part, prohibit any discrimination “based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”
Following the announcement, Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley penned a letter to school districts, panning the Biden administration’s changes and directing school officials not to abide by them.
“These new rules have been in development for nearly two years, and I have previously submitted comments in staunch opposition as it alters the long-standing definition that has created fairness and equal access to opportunity for women and men,” Brumley writes. “At this time, my opposition to these new Title IX rules remains unchanged. The Title IX rule changes recklessly endanger students and seek to dismantle equal opportunities for females.”
Brumley tells school leaders that the state is currently reviewing the “1,500 pages of new rules,” and that a legal challenge to them is “inevitable.”
“I think it’s very concerning and everybody’s eyes should be wide open,” said SarahJane Guidry, Executive Director of the Forum for Equality, a Louisiana LGBTQ+ human rights organization. “The inevitability that we’re going to have to recognize the humanity of LGBTQ students, especially trans students, is paramount.”
Guidry said attacks on LGBTQ+ students, particularly transgender students, through legislation has been ongoing for over two years.
The group of students, Guidry said, is already small and marginalized.
“I think Superintendent Cade Brumley has made it very clear through his actions and through his letters that his concern for LGBTQ students is nil,” Guidry said. “With such a small population of youth being impacted by this, but so harshly and so harmfully, it really goes to question what the motives of these legislators and this administration really is.”
Bills are currently advancing in the legislature to prohibit discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-12, as well as during extracurricular groups and activities, as well as to allow teachers to use names and pronouns to address students that do not align with what the student or their parents prefer.
“I have not heard one legislator or one person from this administration care or give concern about their livelihood and about how they’re going to be educated and how this impacts them,” Guidry said. “It’s very unfortunate when we look at the mental health of LGBTQ students, and how not just the bills themselves impact their feelings, but also what is it actually going to look like once the school year starts where they cannot have classroom discussions or instructions, they cannot have supportive outside school activities.”
Ultimately, whether Louisiana is forced to comply with the new rules laid out by the Biden Administration is a fight that will be had in the courtroom, said Dillard University political analyst Dr. Robert Collins.
“There’s going to be a lot of lawsuits and there’s going to be a lot of litigation and a lot of fights within the federal court system over the next few years,” he said.
Collins said the “culture war” issues being advanced by the Republican supermajority in Baton Rouge are designed to rally the state’s conservative base, but he questioned the need for the bills and their ability to energize potential voters.
“Most of the rules being disseminated by the state are basically solutions in search of a problem,” he said. “Teachers need the freedom to decide these issues on a case-by-case basis within their classroom based on their training as professional educators.”
Brumley declined Fox 8′s request for an interview.
The new rules are set to take effect August 1 of this year.
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