Amanda Crouse
News Editor
On Monday, Sept. 28, the Trump Administration finalized its repeal of a series of Title IX rewrites enacted under former President Joe Biden.
The 2024 Biden-era regulation, titled “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance,” sought to add protections for student gender identity and sexuality under Title IX.
In January 2025, the United States Department of Education stated that it would only be enforcing Title IX regulations in place before the 2024 sexuality and gender revisions.
The Biden-era regulation has not been enforced by the United States Department of Education since January 2025, meaning the official repeal is primarily a formality, as the Trump Administration’s guidelines have already been in effect.
The most recent updates to Title IX that will continue to be enforced are from 2020, during the first Trump Administration. One of the most notable Title IX changes Trump put forward in 2020 was the introduction of additional due process rights for students accused of sexual harassment –– a move that some students and college administrators argue has weakened investigation processes in cases of alleged assault.
Critics of the Trump Administration’s Title IX regulation have also protested the exclusion of protections for gender identity and sexuality, which they say will disproportionately affect LGBTQ+ students and invalidate their experiences with discrimination.
The move to eliminate mentions of gender and sexuality in Title IX aligns with the goals of Trump’s Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” a law enacted in January 2025 that forbids the federal government from recognizing the identities of transgender people.
The Department of Education and the Department of Justice also established the “Title IX Special Investigations Team” in April 2025. The main focus of investigations will be on girls’ and women’s athletics programs, which may face punitive measures (such as the withdrawal of federal funds) if found to be violating the federal government’s restrictions on “gender ideology” in schools.
