Education Department Rescinds Title IX Protections for LGBTQ Students
The rule restores first-term Trump policies on sexual misconduct complaints, drawing criticism from LGBTQ advocates and survivors' groups.
The U.S. Department of Education has unveiled a final rule that rescinds protections for LGBTQ college students against sexual assault and discrimination that were made possible due to an expanded interpretation of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in educational settings.
The rule, published on September 29, stops short of explicitly defining “sex,” as it appears in the text of Title IX, as biological sex, as reported by Politico. However, the Trump administration claimed, in a fact sheet, that the rule does not reflect any new policy decisions.
Rather, the final rule erases the Biden administration’s interpretation of the statute — which extended Title IX’s protections to pregnant students and students who are parents, in addition to LGBTQ individuals — and restores a rule adopted in 2020 by the first Trump administration, which the current administration has been enforcing following court decisions that blocked the Biden-era rule from taking effect.
“Thanks to today’s action, the published Title IX regulations faithfully reflect court orders and Congressional intent — reducing confusion for parents, students, and educational institutions,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.
That fact sheet cites ongoing litigation against the Biden-era rewrite, which prevented the department from making any changes, as the reason why the final rule was delayed. But that litigation was resolved in August 2026, allowing the Education Department to rescind the 2024 regulations.
On September 28, the day before the rule was published, the Education Department boasted that the Trump administration is “formally putting into regulation what the law has said all along: Title IX’s protections are based on SEX, not ‘gender identity.'”
In addition to pushing the Trump administration’s preferred interpretation of “sex,” the regulation also reimplements rules from the first Trump administration outlining a formal process on how schools must respond to allegations of sexual misconduct.
As reported by The New York Times, the Biden administration required educators to investigate any allegation of sexual misconduct at school events or activities — regardless of whether the incident occurred on campus. The Biden-era rule also lowered the burden of proof, permitting schools to use a “preponderance of evidence” standard, allowing administrators to determine whether it was likely that sexual misconduct had occurred.
By comparison, the reinstated Trump rules embrace a much narrower definition of sex-based harassment, requiring schools to investigate only those incidents that occur on campus, and imposing a higher burden of proof before schools discipline students accused of sexual misconduct. The Trump rules also require colleges to respond to formal complaints with courtroom-like hearings, allowing representatives for alleged offenders and survivors to call witnesses, question their credibility, and assess evidence.
The rule has been criticized by survivors of sexual harassment and misconduct, who argue that the policies adopted by the first Trump administration chilled reporting of on-campus incidents and added hurdles in the complaint process — placing an extra burden on survivors of rape and assault.
“While the administration is unlawfully eroding protections for trans students under the guise of ‘protecting women and girls,’ they are systematically weakening the very laws that keep students safe and schools accountable,” Shiwali Patel, the senior director of education justice at National Women’s Law Center, told Politico. “Protecting women and girls means not limiting Title IX protections based on students’ reproductive traits and anatomy, and enforcing Title IX to make sure schools are inclusive spaces that provide equal educational opportunity for all students.”
McMahon largely downplayed the changes regarding sexual misconduct allegations, emphasizing the importance of sex-based protections based on biological sex. She also boasted, in a press release, that the Trump administration is keeping transgender girls out of female-designated sports — which is not related to the rule change.
LGBTQ advocates panned the rule, with Lambda Legal calling the Trump-era rules a “dangerous, legally unsound, and despicably cruel weaponization of Title IX.”
“Title IX exists so every student can learn free from harassment and assault. Yet this rule from the Trump administration lets schools look away until harm becomes severe and pervasive, and forces survivors through re-traumatizing courtroom-style cross-examination just to be heard,” Nicholas Hite, a senior attorney and McDonald/Wright Distinguished Counsel at Lambda Legal, said in a statement. “Those barriers fall hardest on students who are already targeted, including transgender students, whom this administration has chosen to single out rather than protect. Survivors deserve schools that take their safety seriously, whoever they are.”
The Human Rights Campaign argued that the return to the policies of the first Trump administration will mean that “the voices of survivors of rape and sexual assault” will be “suppressed” and that it will be “easier for their perpetrators to get away with their actions.”
“The fact that they’re dropping this rule into place abruptly, without a comment period, denying families, educators, loved ones and the students themselves a say in how they should be treated, shows how little they care about the safety of our students,” Kelley Robinson, the president of HRC, said in a statement.
Allen Morris, the policy director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, said that the return to previous Trump policies results in all students being less safe in schools.
“This is more than an LGBTQ issue or a twisted attack on transgender students; this weakens protections for women and girls who experience sex discrimination or sexual harassment,” Morris said in a statement. “Our trans youth have continued to be used as political pawns, whether through policies like this or fear mongering political ads as we approach the midterm elections.
“This is a reminder that decisions made in Washington, DC directly shapes many facets of our lives, affordability, healthcare, education, and the overall treatment of our children” Morris added. “We hope voters are keeping tabs and are making their plans to show up at the ballot box in November.”
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