Department of Education says pro-trans policies in 5 Northern Virginia school districts violate Title IX.
The U.S. Department of Education has warned the school districts of Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William that they could lose federal funding or face legal action if they do not roll back policies allowing transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.
The investigations, launched in February after a complaint from America First Legal — a group founded by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller — alleges the policies give transgender students more rights than cisgender students under Title IX.
The Education Department has recently stepped up challenges to pro-transgender school policies nationwide, even declaring June, traditionally recognized as Pride Month, as “Title IX Month” and pledging to roll back policies affirming transgender students.
On July 25, the department’s Office for Civil Rights said the policies — some dating to the Obama era and others adopted under Biden — violate Title IX and “have been trampling on the rights of students in the service of an extreme political ideology.”
The Education Department said the districts have 10 days to “voluntarily agree” to a resolution or face losing federal funds and possible referral to the Justice Department, citing a Trump-era order that recognizes only two sexes.
The resolution would force the districts to rescind pro-transgender policies, issue a memo requiring future rules to enforce sex-segregated facilities based on birth sex, and adopt “biology-based” definitions of “male” and “female” when enforcing Title IX.
The five districts, which educate about a third of Virginia’s public school students, are in liberal-leaning areas that resisted Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s “parental rights” agenda. His administration introduced “model policies” requiring schools to inform parents if a student comes out as transgender and to change a student’s records only with written parental consent. Even with parental approval, teachers could refuse to use a student’s preferred pronouns based on personal beliefs.
The policies also required students to use facilities matching their sex at birth, but allowed transgender students to use single-stall or unisex bathrooms.
The model policies sparked protests from parents and students, thousands of whom staged walkouts across Virginia. The five districts ultimately rejected the policies, citing a federal appeals court ruling in former Virginian Gavin Grimm’s case that found transgender bathroom bans violate Title IX.
It is unclear whether repealing the policies would hold up in court, as Virginia school districts remain bound by the 4th Circuit’s ruling in the Grimm case. Complying with the Education Department’s resolution could invite new lawsuits from transgender or LGBTQ advocacy groups.
The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the constitutionality of transgender “bathroom bans.”
Officials in the five districts told the Washington Post that they are reviewing the Education Department’s findings while trying to reassure families that transgender students will not face discrimination or lose accommodations.
Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia’s largest district, said in a statement that it “remains committed to fostering a safe, supportive, welcoming, and inclusive environment for all students and staff.”
Loudoun County Public Schools said staff “will continue to ensure full compliance with state and federal laws” while maintaining an environment “where every student can thrive and reach their fullest potential.”
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Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, criticized Democrats who embrace anti-transgender messaging to counter Republican attack ads.
"My honest answer is you're doing too much and getting too little," Robinson said during an October 5 breakfast roundtable with reporters at HRC's headquarters in Washington, D.C., according to The Advocate. "You don't have to sacrifice any member of our community to win in these races, to have a message that resonates with voters.
Robinson noted that HRC has committed $15 million -- its largest investment in a midterm election -- to elect candidates who support LGBTQ rights and will defend the transgender community from conservative attacks.
Hungarian lawmakers have voted to remove anti-LGBTQ provisions from a 2021 "child protection" law adopted under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
By a 139-51 margin, the Hungarian parliament passed a bill retaining protections against material that can "seriously impair the child's physical, intellectual, emotional, or moral development." But the amended law removes bans on the "portrayal" or "promotion" of sexual or gender diversity, according to Agence France-Presse. The term "promotion" was ill-defined and interpreted broadly under the Orbán regime.
The vote marks the first significant reversal of the Orbán regime's efforts to crack down on LGBTQ visibility. Prime Minister Péter Magyar won a landslide victory in April, ending 16 years of rule by Orbán's Fidesz party.
Josh Turek, Iowa's Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, has drawn criticism for an ad opposing transgender women competing in women's sports and Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming surgery.
Turek, a wheelchair basketball Paralympian and state representative from Council Bluffs, released the ad, titled "Stop the Nonsense," addressing his positions on transgender issues -- a subject his opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, has repeatedly attacked him over.
Yet the criticism and outrage directed at Turek for the transgender issues ad -- from across the ideological spectrum -- have muddled his "closing message" and overshadowed a much more powerful ad featuring his sister, Ulette, who is fighting cancer and whose insurer denied coverage for a scan to determine whether her cancer had spread through the bloodstream.
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