Revisions to a federal rule expanding legal protections for LGBTQ students nationwide are drawing fire from several statewide Republican officials in Montana, fueling the state’s entry into yet another lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s administration.
The revisions, announced by the U.S. Department of Education on April 19, expand the scope of Title IX, the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools and educational settings that receive federal funding, to additionally prohibit discrimination or harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity. National LGBTQ advocates have greeted that change as a significant step toward affirming the rights of transgender youth in public schools and on college campuses, and reports of such discrimination or harassment against students or educators could now trigger federal civil rights investigations.
“These final regulations build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming, and respect their rights,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement April 19.
The Title IX revisions prompted a swift rebuke last week from Republican state Superintendent Elsie Arntzen, who penned a letter April 25 to fellow leaders in Montana’s K-12 public school system. Arntzen claimed the revised regulations “contradict state law and infringe upon individual rights” and called on school districts to “not alter existing policies that recognize the distinction between sex and gender identity.”
RELATED
Transgender, intersex Montanans challenge law defining ‘sex’ as binary
Attorneys for a group of transgender and intersex Montanans said that they have filed a lawsuit challenging a new law that enshrines binary, reproduction-based definitions for “male,” “female” and “sex” across the state’s legal code.
Transgender Montanans challenge state’s rule barring changes to sex listed on birth certificates
The state prevents Montanas from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates except in the case of a clerical error.
“The new federal Department of Education Title IX rules take a sledgehammer to our nation’s freedom of speech, parental rights, and due process rights with a radically woke redefinition of sex,” Arntzen said in a statement announcing her letter. “This is another top-down Biden mandate that disregards states’ rights. I will continue to fight for Montana’s women, girls, and values.”
Arntzen also pointed to two specific laws passed by the 2023 Legislature that appear to be contradicted by the new Title IX regulations: Senate Bill 458, which applies reproductive system-based binary definitions of “sex” across Montana’s legal code, and House Bill 361, which establishes that referring to a student by a name they no longer use or a gender they do not claim is not discriminatory behavior. SB 458 is currently the subject of three separate lawsuits in various Montana courts.
Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen weighed in on the issue Monday, announcing that his office has joined with attorneys general in Louisiana, Mississippi and Idaho to file a lawsuit challenging the revisions. In a press release, Knudsen claimed the new Title IX regulations are an “unlawful” effort by Biden to “appease the woke left,” and added that the challenge is his office’s 44th lawsuit against the administration.
“This rule is not based in scientific reality,” Knudsen’s statement read. “It redefines biological sex which will allow men to compete in women’s sports, violate women’s privacy, and put women and girls in dangerous situations on campus. I will continue to fight to protect women and uphold Montana’s laws against federal overreach.”
Knudsen is running for a second term in 2024. Arntzen, who will reach the end of her second and final term as superintendent this year, is one of several Republicans running in the June primary for Montana’s eastern congressional district.
In a related development, the Montana Supreme Court last week reaffirmed a nearly two-year-old district court finding that a 2021 state law prohibiting transgender women and girls from participating on women’s athletic teams is unconstitutional. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, also up for reelection this year, issued a response saying he is “deeply disappointed” in the ruling.
“From the Biden administration’s recent revision of Title IX to our Montana Supreme Court’s ruling, the far left is undermining the integrity of women’s sports,” Gianforte wrote. “In Montana, we’re committed to fairness in women’s sports and will continue to defend our daughters and granddaughters from unfair competition.”
LATEST STORIES
What Montana’s U.S. House candidates are saying about the southern border
Even though the U.S.-Mexico border is 1,000 miles south of Montana, congressional candidates have made it a central issue in this year’s election. Here’s what they said when we asked them what they’d like to change.
The GOP-heavy primary for Montana’s utility-regulating PSC
Lawmakers, former commissioners and engineers are heavily represented in the June 4 primary election for the Public Service Commission, which has been heavily red for two decades. Here’s how the candidates are differentiating themselves.
Medicaid unwinding deals a blow to a tenuous system of care for Native Americans
About a year into the process of redetermining Medicaid eligibility after the COVID-19 public health emergency, more than 20 million people nationwide have been kicked off the joint federal-state program for low-income families. Native Americans are proving particularly vulnerable to losing coverage and face greater obstacles to re-enrolling in Medicaid or finding other coverage.