Title IX of the United States Education Amendments of 1972Public Law No. 92‑318, 86 Stat. 235 (June 23, 1972), codified at 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681–1688 prohibits discrimination "on the basis of sex" in educational programs and activities that receive financial assistance from the federal government. The validity of each respective executive administration's interpretation is being tested in the federal courts, most recently in the 2025 instances of West Virginia v. B. P. J., Tennessee v. Cardona and United States v. California Interscholastic Federation.
The Obama administration interpreted Title IX to cover discrimination on the basis of assigned sex, gender identity, and transgender status; protections against sexual assault and harassment were strengthened and extended to transgender students, including rights to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. The first Trump administration determined that Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination did not apply to personal gender identity and that the question of access to sex-segregated facilities should be left to the states and local school districts to decide. During the Biden administration, the Department of Education reinstated and expanded protections for LGBTQ+ individuals to include discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. This interpretation was based on the 2024 Title IX Final Rule as well as Bostock v. Clayton County. Upon Donald Trump’s return to office, his administration expanded the power of the executive branch’s interpretation, reverting 2020 regulations on Title IX protections through executive orders such as Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government and Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports.
Background Congress kept the core provision of Title IX very brief, only one sentence long. The interpretation and implementation of Title IX was left to the executive, whom Congress expressly "authorized and directed to effectuate the [statute] by issuing rules, regulations, or orders of general applicability which shall be consistent with achievement of [its] objectives ..."20 U.S.C. 1682
President Richard Nixon initially directed the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) to carry this out.Suggs, Welsh. A Place on the Team. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press, 2005. In 1980, HEW was split into two separate agencies —the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Education (DOE). Primary responsibility for Title IX enforcement in educational institutions was delegated to DOE's Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
Views of the Obama administration The Obama administration's efforts to apply Title IX to protect LGBT students go back to President Obama's first term in office. In an October 2010 "Dear Colleague" letter, the OCR issued guidance on clarifying that Title IX protects LGBT students from harassment on the basis of sex stereotypes. Specifically, the OCR stated that, although Title IX does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, "[t]he fact that the harassment [of a hypothetical gender non-conforming student] includes anti‐LGBT comments or is partly based on the target's actual or perceived sexual orientation does not relieve a school of its obligation under Title IX to investigate and remedy overlapping sexual harassment or gender‐based harassment." In a 2014 Q&A document, the OCR wrote unequivocally that "Title IX's sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity and OCR accepts such complaints for investigation."
Simultaneously with evolving subregulatory guidance, OCR started conducting enforcement actions under Title IX against school districts where discrimination against transgender students was alleged to have taken place. For example, in 2013, OCR reached a settlement with the Arcadia (Calif.) Unified School District, stemming from the complaint by a transgender boy, who was denied the use of boys' restrooms and locker rooms and was required to sleep alone in a separate cabin on an overnight school trip. In reaching the conclusion that Title IX applied to the facts of the Arcadia case, OCR took the position discriminating against a transgender student can be a form of sex discrimination, and that the scope of Title IX should be analyzed in light of parallel precedent under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of "sex" in an employment context. Title VII has also been interpreted to encompass discrimination based on sex stereotypes, gender identity, and transgender status by the EEOC and many federal courts.
2016 Dear Colleague letter On May 13, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and DOE issued joint guidance to educational institutions on the scope of Title IX, in the form of a Dear Colleague letter and an accompanying compendium of actual policies and practices, which had previously been enacted by state agencies and school districts throughout the U.S. The guidance formalized the administration's previously stated view that Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and clarified that transgender students should therefore be treated consistent with their gender identity at school.
In practical terms, the administration instructed schools that Title IX's prohibition on discrimination means that schools generally must: provide an environment free of sex-based harassment, honor transgender students' names and pronouns, permit all students to participate in sex-segregated activities and use sex-segregated facilities (including bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodations) in accordance with their gender identity, and protect transgender students' privacy by avoiding non-consensual disclosure of their gender status. The guidance permitted a limited exception for athletics, where accommodating transgender students would impair "the competitive fairness or physical safety of the sport."
Reactions to the Dear Colleague letter were sharply polarized. Head of the DOJ Civil Rights Division Vanita Gupta expressed hope that the guidance would give transgender students "a safe, supportive environment that allows them to thrive and grow." First Lady of New York City Chirlane McCray spoke approvingly of the guidance, saying that it "reaffirms a basic human right." Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign said that the guidance "sen[t] a message that every student deserves to be treated fairly and supported by their teachers and schools."
Conservative politicians voiced opposition to the letter. Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick urged school officials to disregard the administration's Title IX guidance, which he considered "blackmail." Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called on the federal government to take no position on discrimination against transgender students, which in his view should be an issue for the states. Rep. Brian Babin [R-TX] introduced HR 5294 to invalidate the "Dear Colleague" letter until superseded by an Act of Congress. In 2016 (HR 5812), and again in 2017 (HR 2796) after the prior bill had died in committee, Rep. Pete Olson [R-TX] introduced federal legislation which would limit gender identity to biological assignation, which would remove the ability to apply federal civil rights protections to transgender individuals. Olson stated the legislation was in reaction to "the Obama Administration strongly [overreaching] by unilaterally redefining the definition of "sex" with respect to the Civil Rights Act outside of the lawmaking process." Olson went on to call on Congress to "reject the notion of false power stolen from Congress by a White House seeking to impose social policy on America."
Views of Trump's first administration In February 2017, the Department of Justice and Department of Education under the Trump administration withdrew the guidance on gender identity issued by the Obama administration. A letter issued by the departments cited a need to "more completely consider the legal issues involved", and stated that "there must be due regard for the primary role of the States and local school districts in establishing education policy".
In June 2017, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Candice Jackson issued instructions to directors of DoEdE's regional civil rights offices, providing that, although the Obama-era guidance had been rescinded, they may investigate and resolve certain kinds of allegations of sex discrimination involving transgender students, such as "failure to promptly and equitably resolve a transgender student's complaint of sex discrimination; ... failure to assess whether sexual harassment (i.e., unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature) or gender-based harassment (i.e., based on sex stereotyping, such as acts of verbal, nonverbal, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on sex or sex-stereotyping, such as refusing to use a transgender student's preferred name or pronouns when the school uses preferred names for gender-conforming students or when the refusal is motivated by animus toward people who do not conform to sex stereotypes) of a transgender student created a hostile environment; ... failure to take steps reasonably calculated to address sexual or gender-based harassment that creates a hostile environment; ... retaliation against a transgender student after concerns about possible sex discrimination were brought to the recipient's attention; ... and different treatment based on sex stereotyping (e.g., based on a student's failure to conform to stereotyped notions of masculinity or femininity)."
In February 2018, a DoEd spokesperson clarified that "Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, not gender identity ... Where students, including transgender students, are penalized or harassed for failing to conform to sex-based stereotypes, that is sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX ... In the case of bathrooms, however, long-standing regulations provide that separating facilities on the basis of sex is not a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX."
In October 2018, The New York Times obtained a memo issued by the Department of Health and Human Services that would propose a strict definition of gender for Title IX, using the person's sex as assigned at birth and could not be changed, effectively eliminating recognition of transgender students and potentially others. The memo stated that the government needed to define gender "on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable". The news brought immediate protests in several locations as well as online social media under the "#WontBeErased" hashtag.
Views of the Biden administration
Upon his inauguration on January 20, 2021, Biden issued an "Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation." He referenced Title VII and Title IX.
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Education issued a new rule about how to enforce Title IX, and the state of Tennessee swiftly sued the Department of Education. While the U.S. district court was considering the case, it said that, "to prevent immediate harm to the plaintiffs," the Biden administration's new rule could not take effect yet.
On January 9, 2025, U.S. District court judge Danny C. Reeves struck down the Biden administration's expanded protections in response to the lawsuit filed by the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Views of Trump's second administration