On April 19th, Joe Biden’s office released their new revised Title IX rules to the American public. This overrules the Trump Administration’s Title IX from May 2020. Biden’s revisions were an exciting piece of news for many, with his policies for reporting sexual violence being expanded to LGBTQ+ students.

Title IX protects public school students of all ages from discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs and school-related activities. This federal law protects equal funding for male and female athletes and offers support for survivors of sexual violence.

The Republicans and Democrats do care deeply about Title IX and students’ rights, however, they have very different beliefs on what the law should look like. Especially on the topic of transgender students being considered in Title IX policies. 

The Obama Administration was the first to acknowledge transgender students in their Title IX revisions in 2016. Their policies stated that Title IX has always protected transgender students, it just has never been put into writing before. Donald Trump spent his four years of presidency reversing the policy. His administration stated that public schools were not legally required to include transgender students in their Title IX policy, allowing schools to invalidate transgender students overall. Now, the Biden Administration is attempting to reverse Trump’s policies in their new Title IX; however, they have already been struck with lawsuits from various states that oppose the law. These states believe that transgender students should not be included in Title IX policies. However, transgender students are students, and they have the right to be given the same protections as everybody else.

The expansion of Title IX rights to LGBTQ+ students is an amazing change from the former policy; however, many democrats are disappointed by the limited scope of the changes. Just as Donald Trump’s policies were created to “un-do” the Obama Administration’s policies, these policies were mostly created to “un-do” the Trump Administration’s policies. This cycle of presidents un-doing each other policies is ineffective, as Title IX is supposed to protect all public school students in the United States from discrimination. There should be new policies as the world becomes more open-minded and inclusive.