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Betsy DeVos calls Biden’s plan to re-write due process protections, grant special transgender rules ‘bridge too far’

June 23, 2022 | | Print Article

Trump-era Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is displeased with “rumors” that the Biden administration intends to rewrite Title IX to eliminate the due process protections she installed and to also grant transgender women the right to compete against women.

“We went methodologically through constructing a rule that very clearly sets up a framework that’s fair, that’s balanced, that respects the rights of both individuals with an issue,” she said to Fox News this week in defense of her due process protections.

“So the notion that they would come back and try to rewrite that, and secondly that they would attempt to expand the definition of biological sex through a rule-making process, it really is a bridge too far. And I hope that and I trust that many people will raise their voices if what’s rumored to be true actually unfolds,” she added.

Listen:

What’s “rumored” to be true is most likely 100 percent true.

“A Biden administration plan to overhaul how schools respond to sexual misconduct complaints and extend federal protections to [transgender] students is coming as soon as this month,” Politico reported in May.

“Along with casting off many Trump-era guidelines Biden officials say are too arduous for assault victims, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is expected to codify safeguards for transgender students for the first time, handling both issues in the same rule.”

As of late June, the overhaul had not yet been announced.

The administration is specifically seeking to, one, eliminate the due process protections granted to college students who’ve been accused of sexual harassment and/or assault, and two, expand women’s sports so that biological men who identify as women can participate in them.

President Joe Biden has been gunning for the Trump-era Title IX due process protections since the 2020 presidential election.

“Survivors deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and when they step forward they should be heard, not silenced. Today, Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump published a rule that flies in the face of that belief and guarantees that college campuses will be less safe for our nation’s young people,” he said in May 2020 after DeVos’ rewrite went into effect.

To be clear, her Title IX rewrite doesn’t silence victims — it simply granted the accused the opportunity to tell their side of the story.

DeVos implemented the due process changes because too many young men were having their lives ruined over what turned out to be false sexual harassment/assault accusations.

As for the Biden administration’s intent on expanding women’s sports, plans for this were first announced exactly a year ago in June of 2021.

“The Supreme Court has upheld the right for LGBTQ+ people to live and work without fear of harassment, exclusion, and discrimination – and our LGBTQ+ students have the same rights and deserve the same protections,” current Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said at the time.

“I’m proud to have directed the Office for Civil Rights to enforce Title IX to protect all students from all forms of sex discrimination. Today, the Department makes clear that all students—including LGBTQ+ students—deserve the opportunity to learn and thrive in schools that are free from discrimination.”

While the due process part of the changes are of concern, the “transgender rights” part has attracted far more attention because of its sweeping ramifications.

Already throughout the country, so-called transgender women are dominating in women’s sports thanks to their biological advantages, much to the chagrin of young female athletes and their parents.

The most notable case is that of Lia Thomas, a 6’1 biological male who identifies as a woman and has used this identification to dominate college-level women’s swimming.

In response to this growing controversy, some schools and some sports associations have banned so-called transgender women from competing against women.

But were the Biden administration to add protections for transgender women into Title IX, such bans would become illegal under the law. Or at least those bans instituted by US-based sports organizations.

Incidentally, this week FINA, the international body that governs swimming competitions, moved to ban some transgender athletes from competing against their biological counterparts.

On Sunday, FINA voted specifically to adopt a new “gender inclusion policy” that will prohibit transgenders from competing in women’s races unless they have transitioned by the age of 12, requiring them to prove that they have suppressed their testosterone levels from that time.

Vivek Saxena
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