Following the Trump Administration Department of Education’s clear directives reinforcing Title IX protections and banning men from playing in women’s sports, Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) issued a legal demand letter warning the University of North Georgia (UNG) that its policies conflict with federal law.
Writing on behalf of Young America’s Foundation (YAF), SLF explains that UNG’s Title IX and Gender Discrimination policies raise serious First Amendment concerns because they force students to conform to woke gender ideology by affirming that there are multiple genders and that one can switch genders. They also force students to self-censor rather than speak out against biological men competing in women’s sports or changing in women’s locker rooms.
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Title IX of the Education Amendments ensures that colleges treat all students equally regardless of their sex. In April 2024, the Biden Department of Education—acting outside of its authority—enacted a rule changing the definition of “sex” under Title IX to mean “gender identity,” even though only Congress can do so. Representing YAF, SLF sued the Biden Administration and secured an injunction stopping the rule from going into effect in any college across the nation where YAF has members.
Then, President Trump restored common sense and biological reality by ordering schools to recognize that there are only two sexes in accordance with the original meaning of the Title IX statute.
Many schools and states across the country are resisting President Trump’s common sense policies and defying federal law. But as SLF writes in its letter, one may not expect the resistance to be happening in states like Georgia, where Governor Kemp just recently signed into law the Riley Gaines Act banning biological men from competing in women’s sports.
In its policies, UNG bans using “crude” (which it defines as “rude” and “offensive”) and “hostile” remarks based on one’s gender identity. With these vague terms, students like members of YAF have no idea whether they will be reported to campus authorities for using biologically accurate pronouns, speaking up when a man uses the women’s restroom, or host an event on transgenderism.
SLF and YAF are offering guidance and seeking reassurance that UNG will protect the free speech rights of all students and will repeal its policies to conform with federal law.