MELBOURNE, FL - Today, Moms for Liberty is taking steps to continue their fight against Biden’s new Title IX Regulations by filing a lawsuit today, along with Kansas, Alaska, Utah, Wyoming, and Young America’s Foundation, to stop Biden’s Title IX Department of Education regulations for taking effect and gutting parental rights in K-12 education. Moms for Liberty is represented by Southeastern Legal Foundation and Mountain States Legal Foundation.

New federal Title IX language makes “gender identity” a protected class, which means students cannot use birth gender pronouns or other descriptors about those who no longer “identify” with that gender in school without facing possible discipline or embarrassment. Moms for Liberty argues that these overly broad regulations will also chill a student’s ability to say they are uncomfortable with someone of the opposite birth sex in their bathroom, and that a parent could be prevented from being the one to teach their own child about gender identity as it aligns with their personal beliefs. 

Moms for Liberty Co-founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich said, “Parental rights do not end at the classroom door. Every parent in America is about to see biological boys on girls’ sports teams and in girls’ locker rooms; and gender identity and sexual orientation will be taught in every classroom across America, whether parents like it or not. They won’t have a choice. Private conversations will happen between school officials and minor school children about changing their gender, and if parents try to fight back they will be the ones in the wrong. This is a huge shift in policy that effectively mandates gender ideology in schools. It is outrageous. Our children GO to public school. They do not BELONG to public school. That is something we will never stop fighting to prove, even if it means going toe-to-toe against the heavy-handed ‘gender identity’ mandates from the Biden Administration.”

Counsel for Moms for Liberty, Southeastern Legal Foundation’s Kimberly Hermann said, “The Department of Education’s drastic Title IX re-write guts parental rights, forces our children to affirm the idea that kids can change their gender, and threatens punishment if they dare speak up for their physical safety in a bathroom or locker room. We are proud to stand with Moms for Liberty as we fight to stop these blatant First Amendment violations.”   

BACKGROUND EXAMPLES:

There are four examples of concerned moms/students highlighted in the lawsuit. The below is Moms for Liberty’s “point of view” on each of the examples. This is not legal language (because that is outlined in the lawsuit), but it is a summary in the context of Moms for Liberty’s point of view for media purposes:

Example 1: Merianne Jensen - VA (Moms for Liberty member)

Two of her children have a transgender peer in school who they continue to call by her given name and biological pronouns.The principal has held an assembly to ask everyone to accept calling by different pronouns or names other than those aligning with biological sex.This action by a school administrator confirms our fears that students and parents will be asked to conform with extreme gender ideology politics, even if they do not align with their personal beliefs. We need this lawsuit to be successful so we can stop this new Title IX and protect students from being taught ideologies as if they are a scientific fact. 

Example 2: Tricia Plank - PA (Moms for Liberty member) 

Her children have received scrutiny from their public school administrators for not using new pronouns and gender identity terms for students who do not “identify” with their birth sex. We fear the new Title IX would escalate this scrutiny to outright punishment by the school because they will be pressured to protect “gender identity” of students out of fear of punishment by the federal government. 

Example 3: Debbie Lochner- New York (Wayne County Chapter Chair for Moms for Liberty)

Her daughter is required to take a swimming class at school, and transgender individuals will be allowed to use the bathroom of their choosing.Her daughter is too scared to speak out on being afraid to share a locker room and change in front of someone of the opposite birth sex. She believes she will be disciplined for going against the rules that protect those who do not “identify” with their birth sex. 

Example 4: Rebekah Koznek - California (Vice Chair of Moms for Liberty in San Luis Obispo County)

Her children’s school has a transgender student (biological male who used the female locker room) who “twerked” in the faces of female students.Her child has autism and cannot correctly process why this student would be in the locker room and she is worried about the child being disciplined if Title IX takes effect as written without protections for students like her child.