Education Department restores 2020 rules that narrowed the definition of sexual harassment.
On Monday, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump formally revoked the Joe Biden-era rules that expanded protections against sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.
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Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the measure removes the 2024 regulation from the Federal Register and restores the rules approved during Trump’s first term.
The Biden rule, approved in 2024, explicitly interpreted for the first time that Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination also covered sexual orientation and gender identity.
The regulation thus protected students and employees at federally funded educational institutions from that type of discrimination.
Title IX, a federal law passed in 1972, prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding.
The 2024 regulation also expanded the definition of sex-based harassment to include, among other conduct, harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking.
With the decision announced on Monday, the Education Department formally returns to the 2020 rules, which established a narrower definition of sexual harassment and greater due process protections for accused students.
The change is limited because the Trump administration had already stopped enforcing the Biden rules in January 2025, after several courts blocked them and later struck them down.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
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