Last week, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas took a stand against the recent rule changes to Title IX implemented by the Department of Education under President Joe Biden. In an executive order, she made it clear that her state’s schools should disregard these changes and prioritize the rights and privacy concerns of the majority of students, rather than the few who identify as transgender.
Governor Sanders’ order serves as a reaffirmation of Arkansas’ dedication to upholding the conventional definition of sex as an unchangeable aspect of the human body, firmly grounded in biology and the natural order of things.
“The government should celebrate, not erase, sex differences by providing proper protections for them,” the order says, as reported by The Epoch Times. It also states that the Biden administration “has rejected reality and chosen to appease their left-wing base over students’ safety and best interests.”
The directive was issued in response to the Biden administration’s recent broadening of the definition of “sex” under Title IX to include “gender identity,” a change that Sanders believes deviates from the law’s original intent. “The Biden administration is attempting to unilaterally rewrite federal law to advance its radical gender ideology against women and girls,” says the order issued by Sanders.
Sanders further emphasized in her executive order that the Biden administration’s endeavor to incorporate gender identity and sexual orientation into the expanded rule was “clearly absurd.” She anticipated that this move would result in an unfair competition of males in women’s sports, granting them access to women’s and girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms, and private areas, as well as vying for women’s scholarships. Additionally, Sanders highlighted that the original Title IX, which was enacted in 1972, consisted of a concise 37-word statement.
The GOP attorneys general, dissatisfied with the Biden administration’s extensive 460,000-word redefinition of Title IX, have taken legal action by filing lawsuits to challenge this reinterpretation. In recent months, Arkansas legislators have enacted a series of measures aimed at safeguarding traditional gender-specific spaces.
“The Arkansas Department of Education is ordered to provide specific guidance on how to enforce the rights of Arkansans to equal opportunity, free speech, due process, and privacy under the U.S. Constitution, Title IX, and state law, despite the Biden administration’s unlawful administrative rule,” Sanders’ order reads. “At no point should Arkansas law be ignored.”
