WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), Independent Women’s Law Center (IWLC), and Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) announced that more than 7,000 Americans submitted comments to the Department of Education through IW’s “Save Our Schools: Take Back Title IX” regulatory advocacy portal, expressing grave concern about the consequences of President Joe Biden’s proposed Title IX rewrite. 

The comment drive makes clear that Americans strongly oppose the bureaucratic deprivation of equal opportunity, parental rights, free speech, and due process of law. Many of the public comments filed through IWV struck common themes:

  • The proposed rule “undermines a parent’s right to make decisions about his or her children, and that is unacceptable.”
  • “If enacted, this rule will allow males onto women’s sports teams and into women’s locker rooms, and sororities. This is wrong, and it isn’t fair.”
  • The proposed rules “pressure schools into punishing ‘offensive’ speech about sex, sex roles, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity” in violation of the First Amendment.
  • “The Department of Education should work to stop campus Kangaroo courts, not encourage them! Please withdraw the 2022 proposed Title IX rule, and please urge all schools to comply with constitutionally-required due process mandates.”

In addition, Independent Women’s Law Center (IWLC) and Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) together filed five legal and policy objections to separate aspects of the proposed rule. In their detailed comments, IWLC and IWF argue that:

  • The Department of Education’s decision to expand the scope of Title IX to include new categories is a brazen assault on the separation of powers and on the power of congress to legislate.
  • The proposed rule conflicts with other federal and state laws by encouraging schools to hide important health information from the students’ own parents and to cut parents out of critical decision-making with respect to choices that have profound and lifelong consequences for their children.
  • The proposed rule incentivizes repressive speech codes and threatens to usher in a new era of Orwellian speech monitors and enforced political correctness that violates the First Amendment.
  • There is no doubt that the rule would require schools to allow male-bodied athletes who identify as women to compete on women’s sports teams. This is not fair to female athletes. In fact, it is a violation of the very statute the Department purports to enforce.

Jennifer Braceras, director of Independent Women’s Law Center, added, “The Department claims it is merely enforcing Title IX. But the proposed rule goes well beyond stopping sex discrimination or otherwise enforcing the statute. In fact, the proposed rule creates a labyrinth of woke mandates on every facet of public and private education from kindergarten through graduate school, deputizing teachers and school officials to undermine parents, and undermining equal opportunity for both sexes, and gutting due process and free speech. The proposed rule must be withdrawn.” 

The legal and policy objections filed by IWLC and IWF are available below:

DUE PROCESS

PARENTAL RIGHTS

FEMALE SPACES

ADMINISTRATIVE OVERREACH

NO LEGAL BASIS TO REGULATE

For more information about Title IX, visit IWF’s Title IX Resource Center.

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www.iwv.org

Independent Women’s Voice is an advocacy 501(c)(4) that fights for women and families by effectively expanding support among women, independents, and millennials for policy solutions that aren’t just well intended, but actually enhance freedom, opportunities, and well-being.

www.iwlc.org 

Independent Women’s Law Center, project of Independent Women’s Forum, advocates for equal opportunity, individual liberty, and respect for the American constitutional order.

www.iwf.org 

Independent Women’s Forum is dedicated to developing and advancing policies that aren’t just well intended, but actually enhance people’s freedom, choices, and opportunities.