Florida’s Department of Education on Thursday instructed school officials to ignore new federal guidance that interprets Title IX sex-based discrimination protections in schools to include the disputed concept of gender identity.
This comes after Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), which administers the national school-lunch program, notified schools without consulting Florida’s education department that they should comply with the federal guidance.
Diaz Jr. said the federal agencies acknowledged in litigation that its guidance is not binding or enforceable, and he instructed school officials not to modify their practices or procedures based on the document.
The USDA announced in May that schools that want national lunch program funding must allow transgender youth to use gender-designated bathrooms of their choice. But Diaz noted that this would be in violation of Florida law.
“Specifically, for example, nothing in these guidance documents requires you to give biological males who identify as female access to female bathrooms, locker rooms, or dorms; to assign biological males who identify as female to female rooms on school field trips; or to allow biological males who identify as female to compete on female sports teams,” Diaz wrote.
Guidance ‘Vastly Expands’ Title IX
The USDOE noted in a fact sheet about its proposed amendments to Title IX that discrimination based on biological sex would also apply to what the proposal’s critics consider the more abstract concept of gender identity and sexual orientation.“They would make clear that preventing someone from participating in school programs and activities consistent with their gender identity would cause harm in violation of Title IX, except in some limited areas set out in the statute or regulations,” the fact sheet states.
The department said it would issue a separate set of proposed rules targeting measures that protect the integrity of male and female school sports that don’t allow biological males and females who identify as the opposite sex to play in teams designated based on biological sex.
It applies to schools, local and state educational agencies, and other institutions that receive federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education.
Florida’s education commissioner, who has accused the Biden administration of weaponizing Title IX to push its “woke insanity” on young students, said the guidance document “vastly expands” Title IX.
“The Department will not stand idly by as federal agencies attempt to impose a sexual ideology on Florida schools that risk the health, safety, and welfare of Florida students,” Diaz wrote.
‘Woke Gender Ideology’
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has staunchly advocated to protect children and young people from President Joe Biden’s LGBT policies. DeSantis characterizes the policies, including those related to the school lunch program, as “woke gender ideology.”“And basically, this would be for elementary school kids, where they’re instructed to tell them, ‘Well, you may have been born a boy, that may have been what you said, but maybe you’re really a girl.’ That’s wrong. That has no place in school. So, that is happening in our country. Anyone that tells you it’s not happening is lying to you,” DeSantis said.
In June, DeSantis criticized Biden’s move to strip funding for school lunch programs in schools that don’t align with the White House’s LGBT policies. That USDA policy, announced in May, requires schools that want lunch program funding to allow transgender youth to use gender-designated bathrooms of their choice.
Florida is alongside more than a dozen states that have laws in place requiring students to use bathrooms and compete in sports according to their assigned sex at birth.
In March, DeSantis signed legislation that prohibits public schools from teaching sexual issues, such as gender identity or sexual orientation, to children in kindergarten through third grade.
These Florida policies have been challenged by LGBT advocates.
