Attorney General Ken Paxton Sends Guidance Letter To Texas Schools

AUSTIN – On May 13, 2016, the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice issued a guidance letter that told schools across the country that, as a condition of receiving federal funds, they were now required under Title IX to allow students to use intimate facilities corresponding to the gender with which they identify.

Today, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued his own guidance letter to educational institutions in Texas regarding the nationwide injunction issued by a federal court earlier this week that blocked enforcement of the federal guidance letter.  Attorney General Paxton’s letter explains that, in light of the injunction, no educational institution in Texas needs to change its policies regarding intimate facilities to comply with the unenforceable federal guidelines.

As the injunction explains, the guidance letter issued in May is contrary to the actual law. Congress has prohibited “sex” discrimination in Title IX since 1972, but has repeatedly rejected attempts to add “gender identity” discrimination to Title IX, including as recently as 2015.

As Attorney General Paxton explained: “My office brought this lawsuit to stop the Obama Administration from rewriting the laws that have been enacted by the elected representatives of the people—and to stop his administrative agencies from threatening to take away federal funding from schools to force them to conform. The injunction granted does precisely that.”

To view the guidance letter, click here: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/files/epress/Significant_Guidance_Letter.pdf?cachebuster:37

To view the nationwide injunction order, click here: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/files/epress/Texas_et_al_v._U.S._et_al_-_Nationwide_PI_(08-21-16).pdf