New role, expanded vision

Just two months after President Joe Biden announced steps to increase federal protections for the LGBTQ community, it appears public schools in Louisiana will be refusing to implement policies protecting LGBTQ students that would comply with guidance from the U.S. Department of Education.As part of a larger executive order, Biden directed the Education Department to form a working group aimed at advancing pro-LGBTQ policies in schools, in the name of creating “safe and inclusive learning environments in which all students thrive.”The extent of those policies may vary, but will largely embrace the principle that LGBTQ students, especially transgender students, are protected from discrimination under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a federal law prohibiting sex-based discriminatory practices in taxpayer-funded schools.Last year, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, citing the legal logic underlying a landmark LGBTQ rights case from 2020, clarified that anti-LGBTQ discrimination is inherently a form of sex-based discrimination.In issuing his executive order, Biden noted that over 300 proposed anti-LGBTQ laws have been introduced over the past year, many of which specifically target transgender children and their parents “by banning access to medical care and support at school.” The order, and the formation of the working group focused on pro-LGBTQ policies, were intended to provide a framework with which to implement the principles previously outlined by Cardona.But many social conservatives, including Louisiana state officials, disagree with the premise that Title IX applies to any situation besides those explicitly dealing with a person’s assigned sex at birth.