Gov. Greg Abbott directs Texas to disregard Biden's new federal protections for LGBTQ+ students

Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Education Agency on Monday to disregard a rule from president Joe Biden's administration, which extended federal protections against sex discrimination to encompass LGBTQ+ students.

The federal government's directives, slated to take effect in August, bring changes to Title IX, the comprehensive civil rights legislation that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded colleges and K-12 schools.

These new regulations redefine sex discrimination and sex-based harassment to address misconduct stemming from sex stereotypes, pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

The Biden administration sought to broaden the reach of the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which clarified that Title VII, a civil rights statute prohibiting employment discrimination based on sex, also extended protection to gay and transgender employees.

"Congress wrote Title IX to protect women. Biden, with no authority to do so, rewrote Title IX to protect men who identify as women," Abbott said Monday on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

"This tramples Texas laws that prohibit men in women's sports. I am instructing the Texas Education Agency to ignore Biden's illegal dictate," he added.

In a public letter addressed to the White House, Abbott characterized the new regulations as an "abuse of authority" and vowed to "defend" the original law.

"Title IX was written by Congress to support the advancement of women academically and athletically. The law was based on the fundamental premise that there are only two sexes -male and female," he wrote.

"You (Biden) have rewritten Title IX to force schools to treat boys as if they were girls and to accept every student's self-declared gender identity. This ham-handed effort to impose a leftist belief onto Title IX exceeds your authority as President."

"I am instructing the Texas Education Agency to ignore your illegal dictate. Your rewrite of Title IX not only exceeds your constitutional authority, but it also tramples laws that I signed to protect the integrity of women's sports by prohibiting men from competing against female athletes."

"Texas will fight to protect those laws and to deny your abuse of authority," he wrapped.