WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Education today published a proposed Title IX rule that obliterates safety and equality protections for women and girls in all educational settings that receive federal funding. The rule would insert toxic gender ideology into Title IX by redefining the definition of sex. The agency plans to release rulemaking on Title IX’s application to women’s scholastic sports in the future.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts on Thursday responded to this proposed rule:

“Fifty years of protections for women and girls in school activities are about to be wiped away because the Biden administration embraces woke gender ideology over basic human biology.

“Thanks to unelected bureaucrats, male students who merely ‘identify’ as female will have a ‘right’ to access female dorms, bathrooms, lockers, and showers. This rejection of obvious differences between men and women, boys and girls, will rob young people across this country of their innocence.

“This overreach is a direct attack on girls and women, a slap in the face to parents, and one more reason why we need to abolish the Department of Education, which actively works to undermine American values and reshape our republic through our education system. Absurdities like this are why I rejected federal funding as president of Wyoming Catholic College during the Obama administration.

“America’s students and their families deserve better. Parents and students should flood the Department of Education with comments opposing the rule. And lawmakers must do their part to rein in an out-of-control federal bureaucracy trying to dominate our schools. We also must equip parents to make their own education choices and determine the curriculum and values their children learn.”

You can read the unofficial version of the proposed Title IX rule here. The public can make comments on the rule during the upcoming public comment period (an available link will be posted here). Heritage is helping lead the movement in using the comments process to push back against the bureaucratic state. Just last week, Heritage announced a major effort to slow down a radical new climate rule proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Learn more about that effort here.