The Republican State Central and Executive Committee of Ohio passed a resolution during their January meeting to reject proposed changes to broaden the definition of sex-based harassment and discrimination to include gender identity and sexual orientation for LGBTQ students.
The committee resoundingly passed the resolution to “support parents, schools, and districts in rejecting harmful, coercive, and burdensome gender identity policies and to protect federal funding subject to Title IX.”
“The Republican State Central Committee resoundingly rejects President Joe Biden’s expansion of Title IX to include gender identification. We regard such expansion to be a federal overreach and a violation of the people’s trust to oversee their own local schools. We affirm we want all children in schools to be protected,” the committee stated.
Last year, the Biden administration announced it would add Title IX protections for LGBTQ students. Title IX, passed in 1972, is a federal program that protects people from discrimination based on sex.
The committee states that it only supports the original version of the Title IX amendments.
“We emphatically support the original, authentic meaning of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 in accordance with the RNC platform. We unequivocally oppose the proposed regulatory changes released by the U.S. Department of Education on June 23, 2022,” the committee stated.
Ohio Board of Education member Brendan Shea (District 5) created the resolution after reading that Attorney General Dave Yost filed a lawsuit along with 21 other attorneys general arguing that the new proposed changes to Title IX were illegal.
“This is classic federal policy – literally converting carrots into sticks and using them to beat a political agenda into local schools. When will the Biden administration learn that making law is the legislature’s role?” Yost said.
The resolution states that President Joe Biden’s plan “illegally bypasses the legislative process and undermines the very protections for female students that Title IX sought to provide.”
The resolution continues to say that “the board urges lawmakers to make sure to protect the rights of parents, the innocence of children, and the opportunities of girls in schools and athletics.”
The committee said it supports the lawsuit filed by Yost.
“We support the lawsuit filed by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and 21 other state Attorneys General seeking to invalidate the newly enacted Department of Agriculture rules, that tie continued receipt of federal nutritional assistance and other funding subject to Title IX to the adoption of gender identity policies,” the committee said.
The resolution had several revisions before receiving the Ohio Board of Education’s approval, including the removal of the preamble that stated education “rests on the understanding that there are objective facts and absolute truths,” and that biological sex “is one such objective, scientific fact.” and the removal of the Merriam-Webster definition of “sex.”
According to committee member Josh Brown, who helped Shea draft the resolution, the expansion of Title IX is not about protecting students but rather about Democrats attempting to change the law.
“What this is about is more than just the agenda we oppose it’s about separation of power and that Democrats are trying to rewrite legislation,” Brown said.
The new Title IX guidance is a resolution and not a law.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
