Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s announcement that the Trump administration was formally rescinding Biden-era anti-discrimination protections was enough to spark outrage among women’s rights and LGBTQ+ advocates on Monday—but one group pointed to officials’ decision to make the change without gathering feedback from the public as even more reason for outcry.
“You get no say,” said Human Rights Campaign (HRC) as the Education Department announced it was taking former President Joe Biden’s Title IX rules off the books and returning to President Donald Trump’s 2020 regulations, which set stricter standards for what constitutes sexual harassment and requires colleges to hold court-like hearings regarding complaints of sexual misconduct, complete with witnesses who can challenge the credibility of survivors or the accused.
HRC said the administration was displaying “contempt for the rule of law and democratic governance” as it “denied the public any opportunity to comment on the dangers of returning to these prior rules, and has announced that the changes will go into effect tomorrow.”
“In its typical Orwellian fashion, the administration claims that 'engaging in public notice and comment would be contrary to public interest,” said HRC.
Biden had amended Title IX regulations in 2024, clarifying protections against discrimination for students who are pregnant or are parents, transgender, or have other sex differences, and strengthening protections against sexual harassment and assault. The guidelines were subject to court challenges brought by Republican states.
The Trump administration has already been enforcing aspects of its own interpretation of Title IX, including by targeting schools that allow transgender students to play on women’s and girls’ sports teams. The Education Department said on social media Monday that in rescinding Biden’s Title IX rules, “the Trump administration is formally putting into regulation what the law has said all along: Title IX’s protections are based on SEX, not ‘gender identity.’”
Kelley Robinson, president of HRC, said Monday that Title IX “is, quite simply, about protecting students and ensuring that they are safe from abuse, harassment, and discrimination while they pursue their education. But Donald Trump and his cronies aren’t interested in any of that.”
“Instead of enforcing protections for students, they’re rescinding them,” said Robinson. "They don’t care if sexual harassment and assault go unaddressed. And they’re happy to strip funding away from school districts and states that are actually trying to keep students safe. We know who will be hurt: women, girls, and others who are vulnerable to sexual harassment, assault, and abuse—including LGBTQ+ students. The fact that they’re dropping this rule into place abruptly, without a comment period, denying families, educators, loved ones and the students themselves a say in how they should be treated, shows how little they care about the safety of our students.”
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a vocal critic of Trump and a potential 2028 presidential contender, said Monday that his state would continue working to ensure that all students of all gender identities are safe on campuses. He accused Trump of “once again attacking the civil rights protections that help make our country great.”
At the National Women’s Law Center, Shiwali Patel, the group’s senior director of education justice, noted that the decision came as prosecutors reopened a high-profile sexual assault case at Cornell University, following public outrage.
“The Cornell University case is a devastating example of why robust federal Title IX enforcement matters,” said Patel. “Sexual harassment and assault continue to be pervasive in schools and, to the fullest extent possible, we should be working to enforce the laws that protect student survivors of sexual violence. Yet, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and the Trump administration have decided to ignore what survivors need, instead weaponizing Title IX to attack trans students."
“While the administration is unlawfully eroding protections for trans students under the guise of ‘protecting women and girls,’ they are systematically weakening the very laws that keep students safe and schools accountable," added Patel. "‘Protecting women and girls’ means not limiting Title IX protections based on students’ reproductive traits and anatomy and enforcing Title IX to make sure schools are inclusive spaces that provide equal educational opportunity for all students.”
At HRC, Robinson said the decision "drives home how essential it is that we take action at the polls this November to start bringing some accountability to an administration that has turned its back on the very students Title IX was written to protect.”
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