How Biden’s efforts to protect trans students are primed to stumble
politico.comBianca Quilantan 05/25/2022 04:31 AM EDT Link CopiedThree words in the Constitution are crushing Miguel Cardona’s efforts to protect transgender students in the classroom: freedom of speech.The Education secretary believes students have the right to be called “he,” “she,” “they” and other pronouns in school that match their gender identity.
The courts see it differently.Shawnee State University in Ohio paid out $400,000 in April to Nick Meriwether, a professor who sued the institution for violating his rights and levying an unfair punishment when he refused to refer to a transgender student by her pronouns.
Similar cases have occurred at public schools across the K-12 level, including in Virginia and Kansas, with educators suing on the grounds that using pronouns they don’t agree with violates their First Amendment rights to free speech and the exercise of their religion.Cardona’s new proposed rule for Title IX, the federal education law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, is expected to go public in June and include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity for the first time.
Enforcing the policy may prove difficult for Title IX administrators. And the pending rule will tee up more legal battles over competing philosophies on gender ideology, forcing institutions to tiptoe between potentially costly settlements in courts and protecting transgender students on campus.“It’s very hard to say to a student: ‘I know that you are being othered.
