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Attorney General Steve Marshall and State Rep. Susan DuBose took aim last week at revisions to Title IX that could undo their work to block transgender individuals from certain single-sex spaces.
The revisions to Title IX clarify that protections in against sex-based discrimination extend to sexual orientation and gender identity.
DuBose, who has almost exclusively carried legislation involving transgender individuals, say the revisions would harm cisgender women.
“We have had over 50 years of progress with Title IX that the Biden administration wants to eliminate by redefining sex to include gender identity,” DuBose said. “By claiming that Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, the Biden administration’s rewrite will try to force schools to let men who identify as women take women’s scholarships and invade women’s private spaces, including athletic teams, locker rooms and single sex dorms.”
The revisions are set to take effect on Aug. 1, but have been blocked in several states and Marshall plans to block them in Alabama as well.
“We feel confident in where we are,” Marshall said. “We feel confident in the fact that the judge will rule in our favor… Not only do we think that the rulings in Louisiana and Kentucky for multiple states are persuasive and compelling, we think that Alabama has an even stronger case.”
The revisions run afoul of Alabama’s current law preventing students from using bathrooms outside of their sex, regardless of gender identity.
The town hall was sponsored by LOCAL Alabama and Moms for Liberty, which is recognized by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-government extremist group. The event also featured Matt Sharp from Alliance Defending Freedom, a major conservative law firm that has also been labeled as an extremist group.
DuBose has successfully carried a bill to prohibit transgender women from competing in women’s college sports, although there were already protections in place from the NCAA, and DuBose has also led the charge to exclude transgender individuals from the definitions of male and female in state law.
DuBose recently said that she was “too nice” about the legislation in the last session and expects to bring it back. One of her concerns about the new Title IX regulations is that students will be forced to use another student’s preferred pronouns.
“I don’t want students to be forced to tell a lie by using pronouns they know are incorrect by every standard both scientifically and biblically,” DuBose said. “In Alabama, we will not exchange truth for a lie.”
DuBose has also been a leading advocate fo removing books for individuals under 18 years old that include transgender individuals or tell stories of gender transitioning. DuBose raised contempt about the North Shelby Library hosting a pride display, and later led a bill to have the board appointed by the Shelby County legislative delegation.
While promoting the town hall on Facebook, DuBose asked the library leadership to promote the event, which is improper since the library is a nonprofit that cannot promote political events.
