Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) made it clear on Thursday that his state will not adhere to the recently introduced changes to Title IX by the Biden administration.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis expressed his strong opposition to President Biden’s proposed changes to Title IX in a video shared on the social platform X. DeSantis firmly stated that Florida would not comply with these revisions and vowed to fight against them.
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“We won’t allow Joe Biden to force men into women’s activities,” DeSantis asserted. “We won’t let Joe Biden erode parental rights, and we won’t let him misuse his constitutional authority to impose these policies on Florida.”
The Biden administration revealed its final set of modifications to Title IX on Friday, introducing additional safeguards for transgender students within the federal civil rights law against sex-based discrimination. These changes will come into effect in early August.
“These final regulations further enhance the principles of Title IX by providing clear guidance to ensure that all students in our country have equal access to safe and inclusive educational environments,” stated Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
LGBTQ advocates have previously criticized DeSantis for enacting state laws that they argue have a negative impact on their community. One such law is the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which limits discussions on LGBTQ topics in Florida public schools.
Last year, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the nation, collaborated with a Florida LGBTQ advocacy group to release a travel advisory discouraging visits to Florida.
“Taken in their totality, Florida’s slate of laws and policies targeting basic freedoms and rights pose significant risk to the health and safety of many considering relocation and/or temporary travel to the state,” the travel alert from the Human Rights Campaign and Equality Florida said.
Brandon Wolf, the HRC’s national press secretary, told The Hill in an emailed statement that “already, politicians in Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and elsewhere are leaping to oppose crucial protections for students in America’s schools.”
“These MAGA politicians are choosing theatrics and hateful rhetoric over protecting and furthering the needs of their state’s students,” Wolf said in a press release. “Refusing to comply with Title IX could have serious ramifications for schools, including a considerable loss of revenue on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars—funds that should be used to help young people achieve academic excellence. That appears to be a cost that individuals who solely care about themselves and their political profiles are willing to make.”
Jon Harris Maurer, Equality Florida’s public policy director, added in an emailed statement Thursday that DeSantis “cannot ignore federal protections designed to safeguard students and families, including LGBTQ students, survivors of sexual assault and harassment, and pregnant students.”
“Thousands of parents have turned out at school board meetings to fight policies that utilize their children’s classrooms as political battlegrounds. We will continue to engage with parents across the state to create a climate in which all students can learn and thrive.”
In an emailed statement to The Hill on Thursday, a spokesperson for the United States Department of Education stated, “The Department crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to give complete effect to the Title IX statutory guarantee that no person experiences sex discrimination in federally funded education.”
“As a condition of receiving federal funds, all federally funded schools are obligated to comply with these final regulations, and we look forward to working with school communities all across the country to ensure the Title IX guarantee of nondiscrimination in school is every student’s experience.”
Manny Diaz Jr., Florida’s commissioner of education, informed school administrators in a memo posted with The Hill on Thursday that the state “will fight” changes to Title IX.
“Instead of implementing Congress’s clear directive to prevent discrimination based on biological sex, the Biden Administration maims the statute beyond recognition in an attempt to gaslight the country into believing that biological sex no longer has any meaning,” Diaz’s memo continues.
