In April 2024, Telegram channels reported that due to amendments made by the White House to US legislation, the rights of men who have made a transgender transition will be expanded, and discrimination against these people will become a criminal offense. We have verified the veracity of these claims.
On April 20, news began to spread on Telegram channels that the administration of US President Joe Biden had allegedly “abolished Title IX of the US Code on Gender Self-Determination.” The authors of the posts explained that thanks to this, men who have made a transgender transition will supposedly be able to participate in women's sports competitions, use women's toilets and locker rooms, and live in women's dormitories. In addition, American students and teachers will be required to use their preferred pronouns when communicating with trans people, and violation of the above norms will be regarded as “harassment, which is criminally punishable in America.” Telegram channels spoke about these innovations “Uncle Slava"(193,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Voblya (149,000), "People talking in the kitchen"(144,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(134,000), etc. Messages about American reform were also disseminated by some Media, users Facebook, LiveJournal And "VKontakte"
Posts about repealing Title IX often include a screenshot tweet former American swimmer Riley Gaines, who for several years criticizes participation of transwomen (who were assigned male gender at birth) in collegiate sports on an equal basis with biological women. In his tweet, Gaines is outraged by the “repeal of Title IX as we know it” and the fact that violating the new rules could be considered harassment.
However, there is no talk about the abolition of Title IX either in Gaines’ tweet, which Telegram channels rely on, or in the notes of the American media on this topic. For example, a newspaper The New York Times writes that the Biden administration has reviewed it, and the TV channel CNN called it an extension of the law. Moreover, a document called the “US Gender Identity Code” simply does not exist. Title IX referred to is an article from amendments 1972 to the Higher Education Act, adopted by US President Richard Nixon, that is, these rules apply exclusively to educational institutions. Title IX, among other things, regulates college sports, protects the rights of female students in the event of pregnancy, and directs educational institutions how to handle cases of sexual misconduct involving students, faculty or staff. The same part of the document contained a ban on discrimination based on gender in American educational institutions that receive federal funding, but this section did not specifically address other characteristics of a person: sexual orientation, gender identity, race, age, etc.
In April 2024, the Biden administration presented its own amendments to Title IX, which now prohibits discrimination not only on the basis of sex, but also on the basis of students' sexual orientation and gender identity. But still, for the most part, the amendments concerned how educational institutions should investigate complaints of sexual harassment on their territory. Previously, the version adopted by the Donald Trump administration in 2020 was in effect and came to replace the amendments of the Barack Obama administration. Title IX text updated under Trump criticized for limiting the rights of alleged victims of violence (mostly women) and expanding guarantees of protection for the accused (mostly men) when investigating incidents. When Biden ran for president in 2020, he promised "immediately" reverse the predecessor's changes to Title IX. Finally, in 2023, the White House proposed a new interpretation of the law that repealed most of Trump's amendments and struck a balance between protecting the rights of the accused and victims of violence.
As for transgender people, the new law does strengthened protection of the rights of LGBT people studying in educational institutions with state funding. Now the definition of harassment includes includes discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBT+ students who experience discrimination can now demand that school officials take action and, if they fail to resolve the issue, seek help from the federal government.
However, even under the new Title IX rules, discrimination based on gender cannot result in criminal penalties. The law first of all imposes obligations on educational institutions, which must consider complaints of harassment and choose punitive measures - from a verbal reprimand to expulsion from school or university. If an institution refuses to follow Title IX, it may be deprived of government funding.
Many expected, that the Biden administration will prohibit schools and universities from restricting the participation of transgender athletes in competition by making corresponding changes to Title IX. But the amendments announced by the White House avoided this issue, although the Ministry of Education has been develops bill to this effect. That is, the rules that now govern the participation of trans athletes in competitions existed under both Trump and Obama. Back in 2011, the US National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) released guidelines for the eligibility of trans athletes similar to those of the International Olympic Committee: a trans man (who was assigned female gender at birth) is eligible to compete in the men's category without restrictions, but a trans woman can only compete in women's competitions after completing hormone therapy. From 2021 NCAA allows Each educational institution must be guided by the policies of the national or international federation of a particular sport.
Former swimmer Riley Gaines' outraged tweet about Title IX amendments is not surprising. In March 2024 she filed suing the NCAA over its policies two years earlier that allowed trans athlete Leah Thomas to compete in the US Collegiate Swimming Championships and tie for fifth place with Gaines. Thomas was allowed to compete because since 2019 passed hormonal therapy. According to NCAA rules, this was enough for a trans athlete to participate in the women's swim, although critics do not consider such competition fair. Before his gender transition, William Thomas (Leah Thomas's birth name) was 65th place in the men's 500-yard freestyle rankings, and after moving to the women's team, Leah rose to first place.
Thus, contrary to swimmer Riley Gaines' claims (and Russian Telegram channels), Biden's amendments did not change the inclusion of trans women on women's sports teams or their use of women's team locker rooms. This issue is still governed by the rules of the US National Collegiate Athletic Association, which delegates decision-making to universities and sports federations. The new law did provide additional protections against discrimination for LGBT students, but in the case of harassment, punishment would be imposed by the educational institution where the incident occurred, and there were no criminal penalties for such violations.
Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons
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