Katy's gender policy withstands Biden Administration Challenge

KATY, TX (Covering Katy News)—Two Federal Judges issued temporary injunctions against implementation of the Biden Administration's new Title IX rule that critics says would open girls bathrooms, locker rooms and sports leagues to biological males.

While Katy ISD was not party to the legal battle it will benefit because the school district will be allowed to continue its gender policy that protects a parent's right to know if their child wants to transition genders, and ensures that bathrooms and locker rooms remain specific to a student's birth gender.

Federal Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday, July 11, the same day the Amarillo federal court issued an injunction in a case brought by the State of Texas.

"This is more good news for Katy ISD and all school districts, said School Board President Vicor Perez, noting that Katy was one of the early school districts to create a policy for dealing with these complex issues.

"The ruling is consistent with and supports the policy, which was a forerunner, approved by our board last year," he said.

The Katy ISD gender policy implements the following rules:

Requires district staff to notify parents if their child requests to be identified as transgendered, change his or her name, or use different pronouns at school, except where prohibited by law or in cases of suspected parental abuse
Makes district restrooms, locker rooms, showers, and similar changing facilities specific to a person's gender at birth
Requires players on girls' teams to have been born female
Requires players on boys' teams to have been born male
Excludes gender fluidity content from the classroom and instructional material

The school board passed the parental rights policy in August 2023 on a four-to-three vote. Trustees Victor Perez, Morgan Calhoun, Amy Thieme, and Mary Ellen Cuzela voted for the policy, while Rebecca Fox, Dawn Champagne, and Lance Redmon voted against it.

Also Read: Biden Administration targets Katy parents' right to know

Following the implementation of the policy, the Biden Administration changed how it interprets Title IX, the 1972 federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government. Then, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights used the new interpretation of the 52-year-old law to challenge Katy's parental rights policy and similar policies across the nation.

The Department of Education created a rule that said the protections afforded by Title IX, barring discrimination based on sex, also extend to sexual orientation and gender identity.

Federal Judge Reed O'Connor disagreed, pointing out that the rule "displaces the statutory language of 'on the basis of sex' with 'on the basis of gender identity.'"

Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas agreed with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, ruling that Title IX prevents discrimination against women in places previously dominated by men. Yet, the Biden Administration was attempting to force Texas schools to have gender-mixed bathrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities based on gender identity rather than a student's sex at birth.

"Title IX protects women in spaces that were historically reserved for men," Kacsmaryk wrote. "In stark contrast, the Final Rule inserts men into the very Title IX spaces statutorily reserved to women."

Perez agrees and says that is why the board implemented the policy last year.

"It's about protecting girls from biological men using girls' facilities," Perez said.

He says its also about "protecting teachers and students from being required to use pronouns based on gender identity," Perez said. "This ruling also protects school districts from losing federal funding," Perez added.

Judges in Texas, Kansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana have rejected the Department of Education's argument that the policies are discriminatory. With Thursday's ruling, the Biden Administration has lost its battle to reverse gender policies in 15 states, including Texas.

"Joe Biden's unlawful effort to weaponize Title IX for his extremist agenda has been stopped in its tracks," Paxton said. "Threatening to withhold education funding by forcing states to accept 'transgender' policies that put women in danger was plainly illegal. Texas has prevailed on behalf of the entire nation."

Judge O'Connor asked the parties to provide further briefing about whether a stay of the rule is an appropriate remedy in this case. A stay would temporarily or indefinitely stop a proceeding.

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Comments (3)

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True Journalism

The notion that "the Biden Administration was attempting to force Texas schools to have gender-mixed bathrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities based on gender identity rather than a student's sex at birth," is misinformation. The new interpretation of title IX prevents schools and the state from performing witch hunts against children and grown adults from just trying to live their lives. Your reporting leaves out the Katy community members and students organizing to repeal these blatantly unconstitutional decisions- both that of the Katy School Board as well as Paxton, who has no right to tell anyone where they can go and what they decide about their own lives. If this paper had any integrity, yall would be doing your due diligence to perform actual journalism. Disgraceful.

Concerned Citizen 18 days ago

True Journalism

In June 2021, the U.S. Department of Education, under the Biden administration, issued guidance stating that Title IX's prohibition against sex discrimination in education extends to discrimination based on gender identity, not their birth gender which had been the practice since Title IX became law 52 years ago. This guidance clarified that schools receiving federal funding must allow transgender students to use facilities, including bathrooms and locker rooms, that correspond with their gender identity.

Covering Katy News 18 days ago

Find Another District, far away in California perhaps

It's within the interest of any district to not cater to the cult like delusions of gender ideology, which is objectively destructive to individuals and society overall. Regardless, Katy ISD isn't saying you can't still delude yourself into thinking you're a man or a woman or cross dress in appropriate manners, they just don't want people who claim gender dysphoria, something apparently on a vague and loosely interpreted spectrum and the only proof required of anyone to have this mental illness is simply saying so, to freely enter the private sanctity of bathrooms and locker rooms on whatever whim, which negatively affects the greater majority of students. Apart from the obvious, structurally there is nothing much different between Boys and Girls restrooms/locker rooms, so functionality wise what would be the point? Everyone still gets bathrooms and locker rooms. The policy of not withholding gender identity information from parents is a correct decision; because it has life altering implications and all parents have a right to know those things about their child. If a student let faculty know they had an ailment like cancer or an STD, should the parent just not be notified and the child left to die? Child abuse is already illegal, so even in the hypothetical where revealing this information results in that, there are already laws against that. No parents who aren't already abusive or neglectful aren't going to suddenly change just because their child was brainwashed to be obsessed with what genitalia they have. They're doing the same thing that they would any other thing with a religion like following has; by striking a balance. They allow for individual expression, but draw a line when it starts affecting others. Ultimately, I can't fathom how someone convinced you that somewhere in the constitution it says presidential administrations have the right to force your children to share a locker room or bathroom with someone of the opposite sex just because someone said so. In fact, the local school district ruling against it IS a constitutional right under the 10th amendment. Regardless, students doing so aren't punished by law, they probably just get reprimanded or school detention at the worst, kindly asked to not do that in the least because it can make other students feel unsafe or uncomfortable. The Obama and Biden administration's arbitrary extension of the sexual discrimination clause is pulled out of thin air is no where in the original 1972 Education Amendment, no one voted to add it at the federal level, and no one voted to add it at the local level. In the end, I'd just recommend you find one of many other school districts that uphold this interpretation and let your children devolve into sex obsessed depressed, chemical addled, and suicidal approximations of human beings before they even enter adulthood, it is apparently your right to do so.

Wallace Breen in City 17 15 days ago