The Education Department will no longer investigate complaints filed by transgender students banned from using the restrooms of their gender identity, according to a report.
“Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, not gender identity,” agency spokeswoman Liz Hill told BuzzFeed.
“Where students, including transgender students, are penalized or harassed for failing to conform to sex-based stereotypes, that is sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX. In the case of bathrooms, however, long-standing regulations provide that separating facilities on the basis of sex is not a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX,” she continued.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 does not define whether “sex” to mean a person’s sex at birth or their gender identity, which has been of controversy in recent years.
The policy shift also conflicts with federal appeals court rulings from the 6th and 7th Circuits.
Education Department officials would not say when they stopped considering transgender restroom complaints, nor how many had not been acted upon.
In February 2017, the Education Department, along with the Justice Department, withdrew guidance issued by the Obama administration on bathroom access.
The Education Department then in June circulated another memo stating it was “permissible” for its civil rights office to dismiss such cases.
