Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sues Department of Education over Title IX changes

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. (Photo by Justin Merriman/Getty Images)

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued the U.S. Department of Education this week over recent changes to Title IX, the law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools.

The U.S. Department of Education released the new rules April 19 which will offer increased protections to LGBTQ+ students and staff. They are set to take effect Aug. 1 and will offer protections from discrimination based on gender identity and harassment protections for pregnant women and student parents.

“This regulation turns the statute upside down,” Yost said in a statement. “Title IX was meant to protect equal opportunity for women. This new rule says there are no opportunities that are exclusively for women and men who identify as women can use the programs and facilities designed for women.”

Title IX is the federal civil rights law enacted as part of the Education Amendments Acts of 1972 that bans sex-based discrimination against students, employees and those afflicted with schools or any education program that gets federal funding. 

“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,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

Yost argues that under the new Title IX rules, Ohio schools would allow transgender women to use women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, student housing and play on girls’ sports teams. 

A couple of Ohio bills are trying to prevent those things from happening.

House Bill 68 would, among other things, ban transgender girls from playing on girls’ sport teams. The law was set to take effect April 24, but a temporary restraining order issued by a Franklin County Court of Common Pleas judge has currently blocked the law. 

House Bill 183 would ban transgender students from using the bathroom and locker room that matches up with their gender identity. The bill was voted out of committee last month, but Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens said the bill won’t go to the House floor during next week’s session.

Tennessee’s republican attorney general is leading the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky on Tuesday. Republican attorney generals in Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia are also included in the lawsuit. 

Other Republican attorney generals across the country have also filed lawsuits including Texas and Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho have filed a separate lawsuit. 

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