Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Ed Bartlett, chairman of Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) to the newsmaker line to talk about the Eastern District of Tennessee’s court ruling on Title IX and what it means.
Leahy: On the newsmaker line, Ed Bartlett, the chairman of a group called SAVE: Stop Abusive and Violent Environments. He’s going to talk to us about the recent court ruling in the Eastern District of Tennessee against Biden’s Title IX plans to force transgenders into women’s sports. Good morning, Ed Bartlett!
Bartlett: Hey. Good morning, Michael. How’s it going?
Leahy: We’re delighted to have you on here. So tell us about this ruling. And it looks like attorney general here in Tennessee, Herb Slatery, he sort of was the lead attorney general on this case. What did the court decide?
Bartlett: Yes, sure. Let me just give it a little bit of background so your listeners understand the big picture here, Michael. So we’re talking about Title IX. Title IX is the federal law that’s supposed to ban sex discrimination.
And of course, that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, over the last 10 years, we have seen radicals seeking to reinterpret, radicalize, politicize, and weaponize the Title IX law to turn it into something that has no semblance at all to the original Title IX law.
And the most egregious example of that is the attempt of the Department of Education to redefine the word “sex” to include gender identity. Now, just let that concept kind of settle in for a minute, because it has dramatic implications for schools, for families, for children, and for our society in general.
It’s a monumental, earth-shaking concept that we would redefine sex to include gender identity. So, with that as our understanding, it’s no surprise that under the current Biden administration, the Department of Education has relaunched this effort.
This effort, by the way, has been going on for years. So the Department of Education last year issued a directive to schools saying that [they] believe sex includes gender identity. And therefore any male athlete who says, hey, guys, I’ve decided I’m now a female, often called a transgender, that person can participate in women’s sports. Well, you can just imagine why that’s so flawed in this logic. Two weeks ago, the judge in the Eastern District of Tennessee issued a stay, or a decision, saying to the Department of Education, thou shalt not enforce this directive in the 20 states in which the attorneys general filed a lawsuit last August.
Leahy: Does that apply just to high schools, public schools, or does it apply also to colleges?
Bartlett: It applies to all schools in the 20 states that receive federal education funding.
Leahy: Okay, so that would be Tennessee and 19 others. It’s usually red states, right, that are doing this?
Bartlett: Yes. I can tell you the names if you want.
Leahy: No, we got the list, but I’m seeing transgenders competing everywhere still. Has this been enforced anywhere?
Bartlett: Well, has it been enforced? Do you mean the judge’s decision?
Leahy: Yeah, exactly.
Bartlett: The decision just came out two weeks ago, so schools take a few days to sort of digest it. So I think it’s fair to say that schools in the 20 states will have to follow the judge’s decision, it is binding. And so unless somebody tries to appeal and overturn the decision, they have to follow the judge’s decision.
Leahy: Will the Department of Education appeal this?
Bartlett: I doubt it and I’ll tell you the reason why. First of all, I think they realize they will lose, but also because they have now released a draft regulation, Title IX regulation, that would put all of this nonsense into regulatory law.
Alright, realize that the directive from last year from the Department of Education was only a directive. It was called a Dear Colleague letter. So it’s classified as guidance, not regulation. A regulation has legal authority, it had binding law, whereas the directive from last year did not. Anyway, so I’m getting into the weeds here. But the bottom line is I kind of think the Department of Education is not going to appeal it, but that’s just my guess.
Leahy: But they’re going to try to do the formalizing of a regulation, get around it that way. Is that what you’re saying?
Bartlett: Yes.
Leahy: That sounds awful. Okay, Ed Bartlett, tell us about Stop Abusive and Violent Environments. If people want to learn more where can they go?
Bartlett: So I’ll share our website address. It’s saveservices.org. We have a wealth of resources about this ignominious Title IX proposal.
Leahy: Saveservices.org. Ed, thanks so much for joining us today. Will you come back on and tell us more as things develop?
Bartlett: I’d be happy to.
Listen to the interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
