Right-wing media are targeting the newly released Title IX rule changes, attempting to simultaneously claim that its protections for trans girls and women pose a threat to other girls and women — against clear evidence to the contrary — while also objecting to reinstated rules protecting victims of sexual misconduct.
Following a period of public comment, the Biden administration on April 19 released its final proposed changes to Title IX, the decades-old civil rights law that bars discrimination based on sex at any federally funded education program. First proposed in 2022, the changes set to go into effect at the start of August would undo policies set in place by the Trump administration that limited the types of misconduct schools were required to address, which drew condemnation from victims’ rights advocates.
The new regulations require schools to address other forms of misconduct, including dating violence, domestic violence, stalking, and sex-based harassment. Victims’ rights advocates including the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence and the Victims Rights Law Center have applauded the new rules.
The changes would also expand Title IX protections to explicitly protect students from discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and pregnancy status. The rules, however, make no mention of athletics, with protections for trans athletes proposed in a separate plan that has been delayed.
Right-wing media baselessly claim protections for trans students would endanger cis girls and women
Despite years of fearmongering by right-wing media, trans-inclusive spaces have been consistently shown to pose no greater threat to the safety of cis girls and women. In contrast, most sexual assaults on college campuses are perpetrated by cis men.
Notably, trans teenagers face a greater threat of sexual assault when denied access to spaces corresponding to their gender, a fact made all the more stark by the rising number of bills restricting trans students’ access to bathrooms and changing rooms. Trans students are also far more likely to report harassment and violence than their cis peers and are significantly more likely to be the victims of sexual assault. However, numerous right-wing outlets and figures responded to the Biden administration’s new Title IX rules by erroneously claiming that adding protections for trans students and staff would endanger cis girls and women.
- On the April 23 edition of Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime, host Jesse Watters claimed the new Title IX regulations were “putting the interest of deranged surgeons above the rights and safety of young women” over a chyron reading “Title 9 is now stacked against our girls.”