(HorizonPost.com) – Republican Governor Ron DeSantis last week said Florida would not comply with the Biden administration’s recent changes to Title IX.
The US Department of Education announced new Title IX rules on April 19 that would roll back due process protections for students accused of rape and assault and require schools to allow men who identify as women to participate in activities for women and girls, including sports.
In a video statement posted on X last Thursday, Governor DeSantis accused President Biden of “abusing his constitutional authority” and said his state rejected the administration’s effort to “rewrite Title IX” to “inject gender ideology into education” while violating the rights of parents.
Florida’s Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz maintained in a separate memo that the state would fight the administration’s Title IX revisions.
Diaz said the administration was failing to implement a “clear directive” from Congress to prevent discrimination based on biological gender and instead was maiming Title IX “beyond recognition” in its effort to “gaslight the country” into rejecting biological reality.
Diaz instructed superintendents not to implement the Title IX changes in their districts, warning that doing so would violate state and federal laws, including Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law.
While Governor DeSantis did not outline what actions the state would take to prevent the Biden administration’s Title IX changes in the state, his attorney general vowed to take the administration to court.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said the state would challenge the new Title IX rules, which are set to take effect in August, calling the administration’s action a “betrayal of women.”
Human Rights Campaign spokesman Brandon Wolf blasted Republican states like Florida, Oklahoma, and Louisiana for taking steps to oppose the administration’s Title IX changes, accusing Republican officials of “choosing theatrics and hateful rhetoric over protecting and furthering the needs” of students in their state.
Wolf claimed that refusing to comply with the Title IX changes would have “damaging consequences,” including the loss of federal education funding. He accused Republicans of prioritizing themselves and their “political profiles.”
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