Petition to Stop Harmful Title IX Revisions

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To Attorney General William Tong:

We, the undersigned, ask you to take immediate legal action against the new U.S. Department of Education Title IX regulations that are effective on August 1, 2024. The new Title IX regulations redefine the word "sex" in the existing regulations to include “gender identity.”

The redefinition of gender will have extensive impact on girls’ sports teams and what our children are taught in schools about their sexual identity. The U.S. Department of Education exceeded its authority with this new, substantive change in meaning without Congressional approval. We strongly urge you to take whatever legal action is necessary, similar to what has successfully occurred in other states, to stop the implementation of the new regulations in Connecticut.

The new regulations will effectively remove any state and local control over any concerns related to the gender identity issue in our schools. Additionally, the revised regulations will silence the opposition to biological males playing on female teams, silence the opposition to shared bathrooms and locker rooms in schools, and lead to the suppression of the free speech of staff and students who question the gender identity ideology. The new regulations also do not support parental notification or approval when a school begins socially transitioning their child to another gender identity.

We urge you to express our opposition to such a far overreaching federal regulation and to work to have its implementation delayed and eventually overturned. So far, the federal government has been barred by federal district courts from enforcing the new regulations in fourteen states.

Hopefully, you will ensure that Connecticut will soon join their ranks.

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Summary

What is Title IX?    Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law enacted in 1972 to prohibit sex discrimination in schools that receives federal funding.  At the time of its enactment the term “sex” was not defined, but was accepted to mean a biological male and female. The underlying purpose was to ensure young women were offered the same educational opportunities as young men. This included school activities, such as sports. What is at the core of the new regulations?  The new regulations will become effective on August 1, 2024.  The term “sex” under Title IX will now include “gender identity.”  Instead of “sex” meaning just male and female, based on biological science, it will now require schools, including students and staff, to recognize a student’s sex as whatever they self-identify as, even if contradicts the biological facts.  What are the impacts of the new regulations?  1)  Eliminate local and state control over addressing gender identity issues in schools.  2)  Silence the opposition to biological males playing on girl teams.   3)  Silence the opposition to shared bathrooms and locker rooms in schools. School districts would have to allow transgender students to use the bathroom and locker room of their gender identity.  4)  Suppression of free speech. School districts could be held in violation of Title IX if students or staff raise concerns about the gender identity policies or express their personal beliefs against the gender identity ideology.  5)  Expansion of a school districts control over a student’s speech. The regulation requires school districts to not just punish students for speech in opposition to gender identity at school or at a school activity, but also made anywhere outside the school.  6)  Conflicts with parental rights over the health and well-being of their child. The new regulations do not support parental notification or approval when a school begins social transitioning their child to another gender identity.  7)  Would indirectly require that all children be taught to affirm the gender identity ideology. In order for the schools to adhere to the new Title IX regulations, they will have to teach all children, even in elementary school, that gender identity is a fact that all people must accept.  8)   Raises concerns of reporting non-affirming parents to Department of Children and Families.