TEXAS — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday announced a federal judge has expanded an injunction he secured against the Biden administration's update to Title IX to include protections for LGBTQ+ students.

What You Need To Know

  • A federal judge in Texas has expanded a ruling blocking a Biden administration update to Title IX that would extend protections to LGBTQ+ students

  • Title IX, a gender equity law, dates to 1972 and was originally passed to address women’s rights

  • Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued the update “would have forced Texas schools and universities to allow biological males to use women’s restrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-specific spaces"

  • The expansion prevents the Department of Education from expanding any future Title IX protections to LGBTQ+ students

Judge Reed O’Connor ruled the administration acted unlawfully in expanding protections to those students.

Now, Paxton said, the judge has “expanded the ruling and enjoined any future agency action by DOE (Department of Education) that rewrites Title IX to include ‘sexual orientation or gender identity’ within the statute’s anti-discrimination provisions.”

However, it has been noted that the ruling applies to guidance documents issued in 2021 and doesn't apply to President Joe Biden's 2024 Title IX regulations and only applies in Texas. 

Title IX, a gender equity law, dates to 1972 and was originally passed to address women’s rights.

In April, the Biden administration detailed changes to Title IX that add protections for transgender, LGBTQ+ and pregnant students to the federal civil rights law on sex-based discrimination.

Specifically, according to a Department of Education fact sheet, the update prohibits discrimination “based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics in federally funded education programs.”

The updated rules have been temporarily blocked in 26 states, including Texas.

Attorneys general in more than 20 Republican-led states have filed at least seven legal challenges to Biden’s new policy. Republicans argue the policy is a ruse to allow transgender girls to play on girls athletic teams. The Biden administration said the rule does not apply to athletics.

Paxton, in a news release, said the update “would have forced Texas schools and universities to allow biological males to use women’s restrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-specific spaces.”

“This is a major win for protecting Texas and its students from any future attempt by the federal government to impose its unlawful interpretation of Title IX that puts women and girls at risk,” Paxton wrote. “The Biden Administration has waged war on women’s rights by subverting the Title IX protections they are entitled to in school and in sports. I am proud to deliver this victory and will continue to ensure that Texas schools remain safe from Biden’s unlawful policies.” 

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At least 11 states have adopted laws barring transgender girls and women from using girls’ and women’s bathrooms at public schools.

The Biden regulation opposes those sweeping policies.

It states that sex separation at schools isn’t always unlawful. However, the separation becomes a violation of Title IX’s nondiscrimination rule when it causes more than a very minor harm on a protected individual, “such as when it denies a transgender student access to a sex-separate facility or activity consistent with that student’s gender identity.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.