Paxton Warns Texas Schools Not to Comply With Title IX Transgender Rules or Face Legal Action

Demonstrators supporting female-only althetics and sports in schools gather at the Texas State Capitol in Austin on Sept. 20, 2021. (Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued an advisory to Texas schools, warning of potential legal action against any school district that adopts policies and procedures that align with the federal Department of Education (DOE) revised Title IX rules that include provisions allowing female-identifying male students access to female-only spaces like lockers and bathrooms.

Mr. Paxton issued the warning in a June 18 advisory, which said that he is prepared to take legal action against any Texas school district that crafts policies such as allowing men into women’s bathrooms or requiring teachers or students to address others using their preferred pronouns rather than pronouns that match their biological sex.

In April, the Biden administration announced a final rule expanding the decades-old Title IX law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools to now include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” The move sparked a flurry of lawsuits from 15 Republican-led states, including Texas.

The Title IX changes—which Mr. Paxton described in his advisory to Texas schools as “radical” and “unlawful”—gave men who identify as women the right to use female restrooms and locker rooms, and to join female-only organizations, like sports teams. The revised rules also define “harassment” as including someone addressing another using pronouns that conform to their biological sex rather than their chosen gender identity.

Texas Court Ruling

In Mr. Paxton’s lawsuit over the Title IX revisions, on June 11, Texas District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the DOE exceeded its authority, that it “cannot regulate state educational institutions in this way without violating federal law.”

“To allow Defendants’ unlawful action to stand would be to functionally rewrite Title IX in a way that shockingly transforms American education and usurps a major question from Congress. That is not how our democratic system functions,” Mr. O'Connor wrote.

The judge granted Mr. Paxton’s motion for a permanent injunction against the defendants’ enforcement of their Title IX interpretation in Texas, meaning that Texas public schools don’t have to comply with the gender-based revisions.

Based on that ruling, Mr. Paxton’s office issued a statement on June 18: “Texas schools do not and should not adopt or enforce any of the policy changes contained in the rule. Texas students are now safe from losing their Title IX protections and the school districts are protected from the threat of the loss of federal funding.”

Further, Mr. Paxton said in the statement, “If any Texas school district adopts a policy or procedure that conflicts with or contravenes state law, then I will pursue every remedy available to protect students and teachers from these illegal and radical policies.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meeting in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 23, 2024. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

The Epoch Times has reached out to the Texas Education Agency, which is responsible for public education in Texas, with a request for comment.

A spokesperson for the DOE told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the department stands by the Title IX revisions, which he said guarantee that “no person experience sex discrimination in a federally funded educational environment.”

“The Department crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to realize the Title IX statutory guarantee,” the spokesperson added. “The Department stands by the final Title IX regulations released in April 2024, and we will continue to fight for every student.”

The Title IX revisions, which have been blocked in a number of states, are slated to go into effect on Aug. 1.