Trump Declares June ‘Title IX Month,’ Snubbing Pride
The Education Department will use June to spotlight transgender rollbacks, investigate school policies, and promote a narrow view of Title IX.
The U.S. Department of Education announced that June would be honored as “Title IX Month.”
The announcement is widely viewed as a swipe at the LGBTQ community, and in particular, the transgender community, which has traditionally June as Pride Month.
Title IX is the law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funding.
Historically — and in the view of conservatives — Title IX was intended to protect individuals based on their sex assigned at birth, and is widely credited with expanding educational and athletic opportunities for women.
By designating a month that traditionally honors LGBTQ identity as “Title IX Month,” the department’s announcement reads as both an implicit endorsement of the conservative trope that LGBTQ rights undermine women’s rights — and a pointed, mean-spirited swipe at the transgender community.
It also aligns with the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to erase or deny recognition of transgender identity, including an executive order declaring that the federal government will only recognize two sexes as valid.
In a press release, the Education Department announced that June will be “dedicated to commemorating women and celebrating their struggle for, and achievement of, equal educational opportunity,” with related updates shared on its social media platforms throughout the month.
June will also be used to spotlight the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back protections for transgender individuals enacted under the Biden administration. These include an executive order threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that allow transgender athletes to compete based on gender identity, and a commitment to preserving sex-segregated spaces.
“The Department is recognizing June as ‘Title IX Month’ to honor women’s hard-earned civil rights and demonstrate the Trump Administration’s unwavering commitment to restoring them to the fullest extent of the law,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.
“Title IX provides women protections on the basis of sex in all educational activities, which include their rights to equal opportunity in sports and sex-segregated intimate spaces, including sororities and living accommodations. This Administration will fight on every front to protect women’s and girls’ sports, intimate spaces, dormitories and living quarters, and fraternal and panhellenic organizations.”
To that end, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has launched two separate investigations into alleged Title IX violations. The first targets the University of Wyoming’s decision to allow a transgender student to join a campus sorority and access living spaces reserved for female members. The second examines a policy from Jefferson County Public Schools that allegedly permits transgender students to share overnight accommodations based on gender identity rather than biological sex.
The department’s actions come at a time when anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and policies are increasingly mainstream, promoted, or praised by politicians, influencers, and especially right-leaning media. Critics argue that such rhetoric contributes to a culture that condones or excuses anti-LGBTQ violence.
The LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD recently released a report documenting over 1,000 incidents — ranging from acts of violence and threats to anti-LGBTQ rallies — targeting the LGBTQ community between April 2024 and April 2025.
More than half of those incidents specifically targeted transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. GLAAD noted that many such incidents go underreported, a reality that is often used to justify efforts by the Trump administration to censor or defund resources and policies intended to support the LGBTQ community.
“This year, rollbacks in LGBTQ visibility and challenges to our rights are coupled with a sharp rise in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and disinformation across social media and political campaigns,” Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, said in a statement. “The result is a divisive cultural climate that comes at a cost.”
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