US Education Department Designates June as ‘Title IX Month’

The Department of Education is recognizing June as “Title IX Month” and intends to announce several policies this month aimed at protecting women’s rights at educational institutions, the department said in a June 2 statement.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities receiving federal funding.

Such discrimination includes sex-based harassment, failure to offer equal athletic opportunity, and failure to provide sex-segregated intimate spaces such as living accommodations and sororities.

“June will now be dedicated to commemorating women and celebrating their struggle for, and achievement of, equal educational opportunity,” the department said. “Throughout the month, the Department will highlight actions taken to reverse the Biden Administration’s legacy of undermining Title IX and announce additional actions to protect women in line with the true purpose of Title IX.”

The department said its Office for Civil Rights has launched the first of its Title IX Month initiatives: investigations into alleged Title IX violations by the University of Wyoming and Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado for allegedly allowing “males to join and live in female-only intimate and communal spaces.”

The University of Wyoming allegedly allowed a male to join the Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) female sorority on campus. KKG chapter members have sued the sorority for granting the male entry into the group and for allowing the person to access areas reserved for females.

“A sorority that admits male students is no longer a sorority by definition and thus loses the Title IX statutory exemption for a sorority’s single-sex membership practices,” the department said.

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, Chad Baldwin, a spokesperson for the University of Wyoming, said that the university “doesn’t control decisions about sorority and fraternity membership. Appropriately, the university has not been a participant in litigation in federal court regarding the legality of the sorority’s decision to admit the transgender student.”

He said the “initiation of an investigation is not itself evidence of a violation of federal civil rights laws and regulations,” adding that the institution will cooperate with the investigation and work with the Office for Civil Rights “to come into compliance if needed.”

In the case of Jefferson County Public Schools, the department said it launched the investigation over the district’s policy of assigning students to overnight accommodations based on gender identity rather than sex, “thus removing the safeguard of single-sex overnight accommodations.”

The department said there have been “several disturbing reports” coming from Jefferson County Public Schools, including an incident where parents of an 11-year-old girl found their child would have to share a bed with a male student during an overnight school trip.

The parents were not notified about this policy, according to the department.

The district allegedly told parents that boys and girls would be separated overnight while failing to inform them that their definition of a girl included boys identifying as females, the department said.

The Epoch Times reached out to Jefferson County Public Schools for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

“The Department is recognizing June as ‘Title IX Month’ to honor women’s hard-earned civil rights and demonstrate the Trump Administration’s unwavering commitment to restoring them to the fullest extent of the law,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said.

“This Administration will fight on every front to protect women’s and girls’ sports, intimate spaces, dormitories and living quarters, and fraternal and panhellenic organizations.”

Protecting Female Students

Title IX protections generally cover most school districts, colleges, and universities across the United States.

The law is applicable to all public school districts as they receive some federal financial assistance. All public colleges and universities, along with some private institutions, are covered since they take part in federal student aid programs.

Only private schools that do not receive federal funding are not covered under Title IX. There are also exemptions granted to institutions such as those for religious purposes.

The Department of Education’s recent decisions follow President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order that rescinded several gender policies.

This included tips on implementing Title IX regulations, guides supporting transgender youth in schools, and a toolkit for creating “inclusive and nondiscriminatory school environments for LGBTQI+ students.”

“Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being. The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system,” the order stated.

On Feb. 5, Trump also signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which specifically aims to protect female sporting rights.

More recently, the Trump administration has been in a conflict with California over the issue of males participating in female sports.

California “continues to ILLEGALLY allow ‘MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN’S SPORTS,’” Trump wrote in a May 27 Truth Social post.

Trump threatened potentially permanent “large scale Federal Funding” cuts if the matter is not resolved.

On Tuesday, Trump wrote in a social media post, “A Biological Male competed in California Girls State Finals, WINNING BIG, despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so.”

The president said that “large scale fines will be imposed.”

The president did not provide further details about the fines.