FORT WORTH - A Texas school district is urging a federal judge to join a colleague in Kentucky in striking a Biden-era rule that changes the meaning of "sex" in Title IX to include gender identity, while the State's top lawyer plans to find out if other districts are skirting a law that prevents transgender girls from participating in female sports.
Fort Worth federal judge Reed O'Connor already wrote that rule "undermines over 50 years of progress for women and girls" when he delayed its execution date. Now, Carroll Independent School District says he should go a step further and invalidate it in its entirety.
CISD, in court papers in January, pointed at a decision in Kentucky, where Judge Danny Reeves granted summary judgment motions by Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, Tennessee and West Virginia, plus intervenor Christian Educators Association International.
"The Tennessee decision does not moot this case," lawyers for CISD wrote. "The defendants there have 60 days to appeal. And should they appeal, the vacatur itself may be vacated.
"Thus, unless the defendants there do not appeal, Carroll ISD has no assurance that the vacatur will remain in effect and that it can avoid the irreparable harm that this Court has recognized the Rule imposes... This Court should vacate the rule in its entirety."
The issue most rears its head in high school athletics, the subject of Texas' Save Women's Sports Act. The Southeast Texas Record previously reported video footage of a former school administrator advising an undercover journalist on how to bypass the law.
Reny Lizardo, who has since resigned from his post with the Irving Independent School District, told the journalist if the gender on a child's birth certificate is changed before moving to Texas, the child can play on the sports team of their choosing.
Accuracy in Media sent several journalists posing as parents to several Texas school districts to determine whether administrators were complying with the law.
“It’s not illegal if you don’t get caught,” Lizardo says in the video.
State Attorney General Ken Paxton today started a probe of Irving Independent ISD and Dallas ISD, sending letters to their superintendents that ask for documents that will show if they are complying with the SWSA.
“The idea of school district officials turning their backs on female students and sacrificing the integrity of women’s athletics to advance the radical transgender agenda is disgusting, but that seems to be exactly what occurred here,” Paxton said.
“Any systematic effort by a school district to sidestep state law and allow biological boys to play in girls’ sports in Texas will be rooted out, and my office will explore all avenues to hold those responsible to account.”
And yesterday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bans transgender athletes from participating in women's sports.
Carroll ISD sued the U.S. Department of Education last year. Its school policy prohibits employees from requiring the use of pronouns that are "inconsistent with a student's or other person's biological sex," among other things.
Its lawsuit said the DOE's rule, published last April, trampled constitutional rights. In granting a preliminary injunction against it, Judge O'Connor wrote "Defendant's arguments also prove too much. Perhaps unintended, efforts to eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender identity ironically seem to function as impermissible sex discrimination under Title IX."