Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is demanding the Biden administration stop its efforts to rewrite Title IX antidiscrimination rules to codify what he calls “transgender extremism.” Such federal overreach, he said, undermines Indiana policies that make reasonable distinctions based on biological sex.
Rokita
“Leftists in the federal government are determined to force Indiana schools to bow the knee to radical wokeness,” Rokita said, “expecting them to allow biological boys to play on girls’ sports teams, for example, and to permit students to use whichever bathrooms or locker-room showers they desire.”
Rokita continued, “Title IX was designed to ensure women were given an equal opportunity to succeed by prohibiting educational institutions from discriminating on the basis of sex. Biden’s effort is anti-woman and will undo the very protections for which Title IX was created.”
The Indiana General Assembly recently passed legislation to protect female athletes from being forced to compete against biological males. Rokita strongly supported the measure. Although the governor vetoed that legislation, the General Assembly is expected to override that veto.
Rokita said the Biden administration would use the new federal rules to nullify such state laws.
“I will defend Indiana laws that protect girls’ sports and commonsense Hoosier values,” Rokita said. “Families across Indiana are fed up with federal edicts that silence their voices and erode their local community standards.”
Rokita recently signed a 15-state letter explaining these concerns to Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
“We are prepared to take legal action to uphold Title IX’s plain meaning and safeguard the integrity of women’s sports,” the letter states.