‘Nebraska will not comply’ with new Title IX revisions, Gov. Pillen says

Gov. Jim Pillen (right) with Riley Gaines at an event in La Vista regarding Title IX and transgender student-athletes. Aug. 27, 2023. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Friday announced he is joining a handful of states in planning to defy new Title IX rules from the Biden administration set to take effect in August.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen. Dec. 27, 2023. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Pillen, in a Friday news release, said the “rewrite of Title IX is an affront to the common sense idea that men do not belong in women’s only spaces” and is a “direct attack” on the Women’s Bill of Rights that he established by executive order last August. Under that order, state agencies, boards and commissions must define someone’s sex as male or female at birth.

Title IX, a 1972 rule, prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding. The changes explicitly protect gender identity and sexual orientation.

Pillen on Friday said Nebraska “must fight against radical gender ideology and vigorously protect the rights of Nebraska women and girls.”

“Protecting our kids and women’s athletics is my duty,” Pillen said in a statement. “The president’s new rules threaten the safety of women and their right to participate in women’s sports. Nebraska will not comply.”

Under Pillen’s Women’s Bill of Rights, a “female” is defined as someone whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova; a “male” is someone whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female.

At least 15 states are suing over the final Title IX rule, but not Nebraska. Governors and state education chiefs in at least six states — Arkansas , Florida , Louisiana , Montana , South Carolina and Oklahoma — have also directed districts to defy the rule.

The U.S. Department of Education has said states not in compliance with Title IX risk losing federal funding.

The revised Title IX guidelines, to which the U.S. Department of Education has given final approval, are scheduled to take effect Aug. 1.

LGBTQ students who face discrimination would be entitled to a response from their school under Title IX, allowing recourse from the federal government when schools do not do so.

State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha. April 5, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

The revisions also reverse many changes led by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that added new protections for students accused of sexual misconduct , which currently require such conduct to be “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive.”

Colleges will also not be required to hold live hearings to allow students to cross-examine one another through representatives.

The new regulations do not include a planned provision to prevent schools from categorically banning transgender student-athletes from sporting teams.

Nebraska lawmakers fell two votes short of advancing legislation this year that would have done just that. The introducer, State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, has said she intends to try again next year, a plan that she has said could involve Pillen’s Women’s Bill of Rights.

The post ‘Nebraska will not comply’ with new Title IX revisions, Gov. Pillen says appeared first on Nebraska Examiner .