New Title IX rules on hold in Iowa as federal lawsuit continues

DES MOINES, Iowa — A federal judge has temporarily blocked part of the Biden Administration’s new Title IX rules from going into effect here in Iowa.

For now, Iowa schools and universities who receive federal funding won’t have to comply with the new Title IX rules.

The Biden Administration’s Title IX rules were set to take effect August 1 and would have expanded protections against sex discrimination and sexual harassment.

Dozens of Republican-led states criticized the new rules for including protections when it comes to gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination.

“The pushback on it was that this would allow biological males to identify as female into women’s spaces,” Tim Hagle a political professor at UI said. “Locker rooms, restrooms, things of that nature.”

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined five other states in suing the Biden Administration back in May. They cited concerns that a few of Iowa’s laws could be at risk. Specifically, one that requires students use the bathroom according to their sex assigned at birth and another that prohibits transgender girls from playing girls sports.

“Today’s victory delivers a major blow to the Biden-Harris Administration’s war on women and protects young women all across the country,” Bird said. “Biden and Harris’s woke gender ideology mandate seeks to abolish more than 50 years of landmark protections that women spent centuries fighting for. No schoolgirl should be robbed of the opportunity to compete and succeed in the sports they love or be forced to share restrooms and shower spaces with boys. I will continue fighting protect opportunity and privacy for young women across the country and to make this win permanent.”

Iowa Sen. Zach Wahls (D-Coralville) already opposed both of the those GOP backed law, said the lawsuit is unnecessary.

“I’m very troubled by the decision that this is what Republican politicians are focused on and I think it’s a misrepresentation of the priorities Iowans say they care about,” Sen. Wahls said.

A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Education said they’re reviewing the recent ruling, but the department is standing by the final regulations and will continue to fight for every student.

“Obviously we’re going through a process now as a country,” Sen. Wahls said. “Trying to figure out how do we support protect kids who are a little different from their classmates and their peers and I think that we should be erring on the side of protecting those kids who, again, are already facing a lot of hardship in life.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds also applauded the federal judges decision in a statement on Thursday.

“Another federal judge has blocked the Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to apply Title IX protections intended for girls to biological boys who identify as girls.,” Gov. Reynolds said. “The definitions of “sex” and “gender identity” are different, just as biological males and females are different. I’m proud that Iowa is part of this lawsuit and I’ll never stop defending the rights of women of all ages.”