The U.S. Department of Education is reminding schools and colleges across the country that complaints of sex-based discrimination must be handled according to the traditional definition of sex—recognizing only male and female sexes.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter published Friday, the Education Department clarified that it will be enforcing the Trump administration’s 2020 Title IX regulations, which interprets “sex” to mean the “objective, immutable characteristic of being born male or female.”
The clarification comes after the Biden administration’s 2024 revisions to Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination at federally funded schools, failed to survive court challenges. On Jan. 9, a Kentucky federal judge ruled that the attempt to expand the definition of “sex” to include sexual orientation and gender identity exceeded executive authority, effectively reverting Title IX policy to the Trump-era standard….