DeSantis: Florida ‘will not comply’ with new Biden Title IX rules

(The Hill) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Thursday his state “will not comply” with recently unveiled changes to Title IX by the Biden administration.

“Florida rejects [President Biden’s] attempt to rewrite Title IX,” DeSantis said in a video posted to the social platform X. “We will not comply, and we will fight back.”

“We are not gonna let Joe Biden try to inject men into women’s activities,” DeSantis continued. “We are not gonna let Joe Biden undermine the rights of parents, and we are not gonna let Joe Biden abuse his constitutional authority to try to impose these policies on us here in Florida.”

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The Biden administration on Friday unveiled a final set of changes to Title IX that add protections for transgender students to the federal civil rights law on sex-based discrimination. The changes will take effect in early August.

“These final regulations build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming, and respect their rights,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

DeSantis has been criticized by LGBTQ advocates in the past for state laws they say harm their community, including the so-called Don’t Say Gay law that restricts discussion on LGBTQ topics in Florida public schools.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, partnered with a Florida LGBTQ advocacy group last year to issue an advisory against traveling to Florida.

“Taken in their totality, Florida’s slate of laws and policies targeting basic freedoms and rights pose significant risk to the health and safety of many considering relocation and/or temporary travel to the state,” HRC and Equality Florida’s travel advisory reads.

The Hill has reached out to Equality Florida and the White House.

“The Department crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to give complete effect to the Title IX statutory guarantee that no person experiences sex discrimination in federally funded education,” a U.S. Department of Education spokesperson said in an emailed statement to The Hill Thursday.

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“As a condition of receiving federal funds, all federally funded schools are obligated to comply with these final regulations and we look forward to working with school communities all across the country to ensure the Title IX guarantee of nondiscrimination in school is every student’s experience.”

In a memo dated Thursday and shared with The Hill, Florida’s Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr., told school leaders that Florida “will fight” the changes to Title IX.

“Instead of implementing Congress’s clear directive to prevent discrimination based on biological sex, the Biden Administration maims the statute beyond recognition in an attempt to gaslight the country into believing that biological sex no longer has any meaning,” Diaz’s memo reads.

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