Parents' rights groups urge Cardona not to 'rewrite' Title IX by striking due process, adding gender identity

Former Education Secretary Betsy Devos explains her opposition to the 'radical' proposed changes that the Biden administration claims will protect transgender students from discrimination.

A coalition of 27 parents' rights organizations, claiming to represent almost 400,000 members across the country, urged Education Secretary Miguel Cardona not to reverse the Trump administration's Title IX sex discrimination reforms and pleaded with him not to incorporate "gender identity" into Title IX regulations.

"We represent parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens across the country who are worried that the forthcoming rule changes are a politicized effort to placate activists," the organizations, spearheaded by Parents Defending Education, wrote in a letter to Cardona on Tuesday. "In fact, the sweeping changes to Title IX that you are reportedly set to announce would erode the very rights that protect all students – regardless of sex – and ensure a safe and equitable learning environment."

President Biden signed an executive order in March 2021 outlining plans to review Title IX regulations related to gender identity. Biden repeatedly has cited the 2020 case Bostock v. Clayton County, in which the Supreme Court ruled that discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination of the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in federal law.

Miguel Cardona speaking in Delaware in December 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Getty Images, File)

Then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had issued new rules regarding Title IX, the federal statue that governs sexual misconduct in schools, rejecting the Obama administration's 2011 "Dear Colleague" letter that critics said led colleges and universities across America to deny due process