Title IX rules finalized and evolving

April 28, 2024
Book news LGBT Office for Civil Rights sexual assault sexual harassment Sports Title IX Trump

The U.S. Department of Education finalized new Title IX rules that illustrate the ever-evolving ways our society tries to battle sex discrimination in education. It’s fair to say that we’ve made great progress in the last 52 years since Congress passed Title IX, and that these efforts remain a work in progress. For highlights of the changes, see below. But first, a brief recap: Under former President Trump, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos changed the Title IX regulations for the first time in more than 40 years. Key changes made it harder for students to get help for sexual harassment and […]

Proposed Title IX transgender rules delayed

April 1, 2024
LGBT Office for Civil Rights Sports Title IX
athletics, transgender

The U.S. Department of Education will delay its proposed Title IX transgender rules until after the 2024 elections, news outlets report. The proposed regulations would prevent broad bans against transgender students participating in athletics, a practice being considered in dozens of states in recent years. The Biden Administration earlier had separated the proposed athletics rules for transgender student participation from other proposed revisions to the Title IX regulations designed to undo some of the changes made by former President Trump and his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The Trump changes especially related to how schools respond to sexual assaults and harassment. […]

Title IX discussion questions available

April 27, 2023
Author events LGBT Office for Civil Rights Sports Title IX

If your class or book group would like to talk about the ideas and stories raised in my book 37 Words, I’ve got some Title IX discussion questions for you! And if you’d like me to Zoom in on the discussion, that could be arranged. Reach me through my contact page. 37 Words – Suggested Discussion Questions Chapter 1: Strong — 1969 Chapter 2: Complaints — 1970 Chapter 3: Congress – 1970-1972 Chapter 4: Implementation – 1972-1977 Chapter 5: Sexual Harassment – 1977-1980 Chapter 6: Enforcement – 1975-1979 Chapter 7: Backlash – 1980-1990 Chapter 8: Christine, Jackie, Rebecca, Nicole, Alida, LaShonda […]

Talking Title IX in Maine

April 3, 2023
Author events LGBT Office for Civil Rights Sports Title IX

Join me for three events this week in the Pine Tree State, where I’ll be talking about Title IX in Maine. The Portland Press Herald published a Commentary by me with a preview of some of what I’ll say. (And in case you missed it, here’s an earlier version published March 24 by the Concord Monitor.) The rights of transgender students to play school sports is one big topic, of course — see the latest news below under “Elsewhere.” It helps to have an understanding of Title IX history to talk about this issue intelligently and compassionately. And we’ll also […]

Talking Title IX in Concord, N.H.

March 18, 2023
Author events LGBT Title IX

I’m headed for the New Hampshire state capital to speak at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord on Tuesday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m. Meet me at 45 South Main Street to discuss Title IX in the Granite State and my book 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination (The New Press). Spoiler: New Hampshire colleges and universities still don’t comply with Title IX. But you already guessed that. Meanwhile, some state legislators tried three times in the past three years to ban transgender students from athletics, but they haven’t succeeded. Yet. That would be another violation of Title IX. […]

Bill could fix flaw imposed by Supreme Court on Title IX

December 9, 2022
Intersectional LGBT Pamela Price sexual assault sexual harassment Title IX

A federal bill could repair a flaw imposed by the Supreme Court on Title IX more than 20 years ago that makes it harder to address sexual harassment in education than in employment. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) introduced the SAFER Act with multiple co-signers and support from the likes of the National Women’s Law Center, Know Your IX, and other women’s advocates. The Students’ Access to Freedom and Educational Rights (SAFER) Act would bring management of sexual harassment under Title IX closer to management under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which covers […]

Women’s Equality Day includes education

August 25, 2022
Book news Intersectional LGBT Office for Civil Rights sexual harassment Sports Title IX
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Women’s Equality Day on August 26 includes the struggle for equity in education, which handily illustrates how movements for various aspects of women’s rights are never really separate from each other. On that date in 1920, U.S. women won the right to vote, though racism limited access to voting mainly to white women for the following 44 years until Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Author and activist Betty Friedan surprised her feminist allies in 1970 by calling for a Women’s Strike for Equality, urging women to pour into the streets on August 26. And they did all […]

Where are “protectors” of women’s sports now?

May 30, 2022
Author events Book news LGBT media politics Sports Title IX

The self-designated “protectors” of women’s sports who loudly oppose allowing a few transgender girls and women to compete remain oddly silent about practices that unfairly give hundreds of women’s playing slots to cisgender men year after year after year. An excellent USA Today article this week exposed some of the ways that college athletics programs routinely shortchange women’s teams. Three big ones: counting men who practice with women’s teams as women, double-counting women athletes, and packing so many women onto a team that most never get a chance to play, instead of creating more teams for women. For example, I […]

Potential big deal for Title IX lawsuits

May 22, 2022
Author events Book news Harvard LGBT Office for Civil Rights politics sexual assault sexual harassment Sports Title IX

A little-noticed legal ruling this week could be a big deal for Title IX lawsuits going forward. If I’m reading this right, colleges and universities could be held accountable not only for cases in which they were deliberately indifferent to reports of sexual harassment and assault after they happened. They could also be held accountable for inadequate management of campus sexual violence before the next attacks occur because their actions (or lack of them) increased the risk for more victims, violating Title IX. What does that look like in real life? The ruling from a three-judge Appeals Court panel gave […]

Confronting child sex trafficking on campus

April 29, 2022
Author events Book news LGBT rape sexual assault sexual harassment Sports Title IX

Child sex trafficking isn’t the first thing most people think of when they consider sexual harassment and assault in higher education. But it’s more common than you may think. And perpetrators are almost all white, male academics, according to a study by Lori Handrahan, Ph.D. More than half held leadership positions on campus. It’s perhaps significant that the findings come from an independent scholar, meaning she currently holds no faculty position. Here’s her report in the Journal of Human Trafficking with more. You can see a concise summary of her findings that she posted on Medium. And here’s the awesome […]

Title IX to cover queer, transgender people

March 30, 2022
LGBT Office for Civil Rights politics Title IX

Revisions to Title IX’s regulations that are expected to be proposed by the White House in April will affirm explicitly for the first time that Title IX’s protections cover queer and transgender people. The regulations’ prohibition of sex discrimination in education will include discrimination based on “sex stereotypes, sex-related characteristics (including intersex traits), pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identify,” the Washington Post reported. Backing up the supportive stance of the Biden Administration, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona posted a 2021 video conversation with his cousin Alex Cardona, a young transgender man, in which the Secretary says, “I […]

Transgender athletes caught between inclusion and competition

Today’s debates about transgender athletes competing in elite sports remind me of the early days of Title IX when feminists and everyone else in society were trying to figure out how to include women of any kind in school sports. What’s the fairest way? Some argued for not following “the male model” of athletics, with its long reputation for cheating, winning at all costs, and exploiting young athletes. Inclusion is more important than competition, they argued, favoring the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women’s slogan “every girl in a sport and a sport for every girl” so that all girls […]