Parents stand against Title IX changes

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: major changes to Title IX.

Title IX was signed into law back in 1972. It prohibits institutions that receive federal funding from excluding students from educational and athletic opportunities because of their sex. For decades, the law has ensured that girls have access to the same activities as boys.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: But earlier this year the Biden Administration announced changes to Title IX. They require schools to consider sexual orientation and gender identity as protected from discrimination.

The changes went into effect August 1st, but there have been multiple legal challenges, and as of now, 26 states are exempted from enforcing them.

BROWN: Not only that, several groups, including Moms For Liberty and Female Athletes United, are involved in litigation in Kansas that resulted in exemptions from the rule changes. That means for now the changes are stayed in schools where members of those groups attend or have children.

BUTLER: With many young people going back to school over the next few weeks, what do the new guidelines and the lawsuits against them mean for families?

WORLD’s Lindsay Mast spoke with Tiffany Justice, one of the co-founders of Moms for Liberty, to find out.

Here’s their conversation.

LINDSAY MAST: Tiffany, good morning.

TIFFANY JUSTICE: Good morning. Thank you so much for having me today.

MAST: Tiffany, let’s talk first about Title IX changes specifically when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identity. What concerns does your group have about the changes for girls?

JUSTICE: Yeah, we absolutely like to be clear and say we don't want any child to be discriminated at school. But when you have a situation like we did with one of the plaintiffs in our case before the 10th Circuit, that was that Kansas case you spoke of, a mom saying that my daughter has compulsory swim classes at school, and this new change to Title IX is going to mean that if there's a boy in the girl's locker room, not only will she not be able to share the fact that she might feel unsafe or uncomfortable, but if she does, in fact share that she feels unsafe or uncomfortable, she will now be the problem. A Title IX complaint could now be launched against her for saying that she's not comfortable changing in front of someone of the opposite sex.

MAST: Turning to the legal decisions. So far, a number of states and school districts are not enforcing the Title IX regulations as a result of legal action taken by Moms for Liberty. Can you talk us through your strategy in that?

JUSTICE: Absolutely. So we filed in the 10th Circuit. That was Kansas, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming. What we saw out of the 10th Circuit was a ruling that said that any school that has a Moms for Liberty member's child is exempt from having to put into effect the Department of Education under the Biden-Harris administration those new regulations that the schools do not need to put new regulations into effect. And so for many people in blue states, especially where you know, there have been, I think, five different federal courts that have ruled here and have put injunctions, preliminary injunctions in place, so this rule doesn't go into effect. But if you're in a state like California or Michigan, your state isn't covered. And this is a wonderful way for people who are concerned about these new Title IX regulations---and let me be clear, you should absolutely be concerned about these regulations. This means boys on your girls' sports teams. This means boys in your girls' private spaces, bathrooms and locker rooms. This also means that if your child expresses gender confusion at school, that the school then can consider you to be the threat if you're not willing to affirm your child's wish of changing their gender, and so parents absolutely need to be aware of this. And our strategy was really to focus on the First Amendment harms that would come to our individual students at schools, as I said, that one little girl who's in the bathroom or the locker room and won't be able to express the fact that she feels unsafe with having a boy in that locker room with her. Our moms also said, as declarants in the case that they will not force their children to lie at school. So this is an egregious violation of First Amendment rights in America---compelled speech---the idea that you would send your child into school and they would be forced to use the wrong pronouns for someone is absolutely unacceptable, and our moms refuse to force their children to lie.

MAST: Tiffany, what happens now in those schools and colleges that are part of the litigation? What are the next steps?

JUSTICE: Well, it's the states that have brought the claims, and as far as the schools are concerned, for Moms for Liberty, I'll focus on us. So every periodically, every few weeks, the judge has given us the opportunity to update the court as to which schools are exempt from the Title IX regulations going into effect. So as you said, they were supposed to go into effect on August 1. Very proud to say that as of right now, over 3,000 schools that have Moms for Liberty member's kids in them have been submitted on a list. But to be clear, just because your school's name isn't on the list doesn't mean that they can enforce the Title IX regulations. The court was very clear to say that anywhere that there is a Moms for Liberty member's child going to school, if you're taking federal funds, you cannot enforce new Title IX regulations.

MAST: Well, I know it's early yet, schools are just starting to go back, but the rules are in effect in a number of states not yet involved in the litigation. Do you know anything about what's what's happening, where they are being implemented?

JUSTICE: No, schools really haven't started yet. So you know, I'm sure that school districts are, you know, trying to go through their policies and update them. The truth is, they don't have to. Just a little reminder for school board members, for teachers, for administrators, superintendents: in the 52-years history of Title IX, not once has the federal government ever stopped giving federal funding to a school district because of a Title IX complaint, not once. And so if this is something that goes against your conscience, if you know that it's wrong to make girls feel uncomfortable or put them in unsafe positions by having boys on their school sports teams, stand up, take a stand now. Tell the federal government, no, we're not going to do this. I think what we're reaching is a real breaking point with the American public. The Biden-Harris administration continues to force us to this breaking point. But parents, nobody's going to fight for anything like you are going to fight for your child, and our kids need us right now.

MAST: Anything else, as far as strategy to continue to block this that people need to know about?

JUSTICE: People need to stand up and have their voices heard. As I said, most Americans don't want this, but we need to stand up and speak out about it. You need to be honest when you're speaking to people, your friends and your family, the time for this idea of being nice, there's no such thing as a transgender child. The nice thing to do is to help to get those children the resources and the tools and the mental health help they need in order to feel comfortable in the body that they've been born in. No child is born in the wrong body. So being honest right now, telling the truth, and knowing that if you stand up and tell the truth, you won't be the only one. I promise people are going to join you. But the most important thing we can do right now is tell the truth in America.

HOST: Tiffany Justice is a co-founder of the group Moms for Liberty. Tiffany, thank you for your time.

JUSTICE: Thank you for having me on. Such an important topic to talk about.

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