The CCCU and Professor Wagner filed official comments with the U.S. Department of Education in response to proposed changes to Title IX regulations. In addition to altering the reporting and investigation process related to sexual harassment under Title IX, the new rules expand Title IX protections from discrimination based on “sex”, rooted in the distinction between male and female, to also include sexual orientation and gender identity. This approach would, among other deleterious effects, require “any K–12 school or institution of higher education that receives federal funding to open its bathrooms, locker rooms, housing accommodations, sports teams, and any other sex-separated educational program or offering to the opposite sex, if those individuals simply claim to be female.” Additionally, “The rule change also adds sections redefining sexual harassment to include “sex-based harassment.” This means that, for instance, using the “wrong” personal pronouns for a person identifying as the opposite sex could be considered sexual harassment.” Here’s the latest from the Christian Post, reporting that “most top universities have inadequate due process protections as Title IX changes loom”
https://www.christianpost.com/news/colleges-lack-due-process-rights-as-title-ix-changes-loom- report.html?vgo_ee=mEtnYMpTWedLNpA2rYO550zkASpiHornD%2Fz2wZTd1jg%3D
Freedom of Religious Conscience Implications.
The new proposed rules seek to dismantle the traditional recognition that differences between male and female are fundamental to human nature and humanity’s relationship to God. People of the Abrahamic faiths recognize that differences in sex reflect God’s nature and that this difference is inherent to our status as being made in the image of God: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27. This “Imago Dei” is the source of the inherent worth and dignity of all persons, and this value does not derive from our subjective definitions of ourselves. Redefining discrimination based on “sex” in Title IX to also include protections for gender identity thus erodes the God given categories of male and female and diminishes both our knowledge of ourselves and our creator.
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