(The Center Square) - Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey are leading four other state attorney generals in the latest lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's changes to the Title IX rule.
The rule revision changes the word "sex" to "gender identity".
The new policy forces universities to allow men on women's and girls' sports teams, according to the attorney general.
"It forces schools and universities to allow men into women and girls locker rooms, restrooms, and shower facilities," Griffin said. "It compels teachers, administrators, and even fellow students to use an individual’s preferred pronouns. And it subjects anyone who disagrees with President Biden’s view of sex to investigation and possible sanction."
Biden does not have the authority to change the rule, Griffin said.
"If you want to change the law there's a process for that as outlined on Schoolhouse Rock and it's on YouTube," Griffin said. "You got to go through Congress."
Griffin was joined by Arkansas high school basketball player Amelia Ford, who said she was concerned about the effect the new rule would have on female athletes.
"You don't just become a girl by what you feel or what you think," Ford said. "The government should not force us to disregard common sense and reality, especially not by using Title IX, a law meant to protect women's opportunities."
Griffin cited an incident where a transgendered man was allowed to compete in a sporting event in New York but said he wasn't aware of any incidents in Arkansas.
"I think we have no obligation to sit around and wait until the examples pile up," Griffin said. "The idea that his isn't going to happen here because it hasn't happened yet, I don't buy it and I don't think anyone else buys it."
Bailey said the Biden administration will withdraw funding from institutions that reject the rule.
"I’m filing suit because I will not allow federal bureaucrats to subject Missouri girls to unsafe conditions in order to push a radical transgender ideology," Bailey said.
Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska joined Arkansas and Missouri in the lawsuit.
“Biden is destroying a long tradition of protecting girls in schools,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said. “With Biden’s radical gender ideology mandate, he has not only robbed young women of the opportunity to safely compete and succeed in the sports they love, he has violated their privacy."
Several states have filed other lawsuits against the Title IX changes, either separately or with other states. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said Monday he began a court action against the U.S. Department of Education in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Oklahoma.
“The Department attempts to make these drastic and detrimental changes while relying on a Supreme Court case that has no connection to Title IX," Drummond said in the lawsuit. "Perhaps worst of all, implementation of the Final Rule would serve to isolate and deny the group of athletes that the statute was originally designed to promote and protect – female athletes.”
