Biden Administration Backs Down On Transgender Title IX Changes

If there was any doubt that the Biden administration knew that its proposed changes to Title IX were unpopular, the timing of Friday afternoon’s announcement should clear those right up.

In April 2023, Biden’s handlers submitted a change to Title IX regulations that would have effectively prevented states from banning males from competing in women’s sports. Sane jurisdictions that worked to protect women’s safety and the fairness of single-sex athletic events would have been overruled by new federal regulations. 

That proposal is now dead in the water. 

Per a news release on Friday afternoon, the Department of Education has withdrawn its rule changes pertaining to “gender identity” in athletics. 

“The intent of the Athletics NPRM was to ‘propose a regulatory standard under Title IX that would govern a recipient’s adoption or application of sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female athletic team consistent with their gender identity.’

“The Department recognizes that there are multiple pending lawsuits related to the application of Title IX in the context of gender identity, including lawsuits related to Title IX’s application to athletic eligibility criteria in a variety of factual contexts. In light of the comments received and those various pending court cases, the Department has determined not to regulate on this issue at this time. Therefore, the Department hereby withdraws the Athletics NPRM and terminates this rulemaking proceeding.”

It’s a stunning, much-needed turn to sanity. And the timing is confusing, to say the least.

President Joe Biden. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Withdrawing Biden Administration Title IX Rule A Win For Common Sense

It’s clear that the administration knew that this rule to protect transgender athletes had no chance of surviving the lawsuits and court of public opinion. Especially after the re-election of Donald Trump showed that the country overwhelmingly disapproved of such extremism. 

But it’s also clear that they wanted to bury this announcement as to avoid scrutiny and criticism from the political left. So they chose to dump it on the Friday before Christmas, with most of the country checked out of the news or focused on the first game of the new College Football Playoff era.

Sounds about right for how this disgraceful administration has conducted itself for the past four years. 

Still, the announcement, confusing as it is, is welcome. It will no longer fall to lawsuits for women and their families, or sane states, to protect themselves against the absurdity of enshrining protections for “gender identity” into Title IX. A direct repudiation of what the rule is and was supposed to be about.

It’s clear that the culture has reached an inflection point with trans athletes, and this might be the most obvious sign yet that sanity is winning.