State Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. (Photo from Florida House of Representatives)
The Florida Board of Education approved changes May 29 in the Florida High School Athletic Association’s bylaws that include replacing mentions of the word “gender” with “sex.”
The idea for changes came about when Florida and other majority Republican states, started to challenge a Biden administration rule that would help carry out Title IX, a decades-old law that bars discrimination in education programs based on sex.
This federal rule would require that discrimination based on gender identity be included under broader definition of sex discrimination.
State Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. said Wednesday that he has “directed the institutions under my purview not to take any steps toward implementing these harmful (federal) regulations.”
The updated bylaw says that each school is responsible to determine independently its own policies regarding nondiscrimination.
During the education board meeting on Wednesday in Miami, Crystal Etienne, a Miami-Dade County teacher, criticized the FHSAA bylaw changes that were approved.
“Do you think a child is living through this scrutiny to be their true, authentic selves to win at sports? Do you think that’s what is happening in these schools? This is just another way to push the culture wars,” Etienne said.
Etienne continued to go on and warned that if Florida does not comply with Title IX, that schools will be at risk of losing federal funding that they so desperately need.
Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina filed a federal lawsuit last month challenging the new Title IX rule. The states allege that the Biden administration overstepped its legal authority in extending the regulations to apply to discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Diaz added throughout the meeting, “By broadening the definition of sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity, the Biden administration is taking sports and educational opportunities away from girls.”
However, the U.S. Department of Education posted documents on its website saying that the rule does not apply to issues about players on sports teams.
The department continued to say that they intend to issue a separate final rule to address Title IX’s application to sex-separate athletic teams.
A bylaw adopted by the FHSAA Board of Directors does not fully take effect until it is ratified by the State Board of Education.
Another change added to the bylaws approved Wednesday includes allowing students to continue playing on their sports teams even if they graduate early.
An Alabama federal judge will hear arguments July 1 on a request by the states and other plaintiffs for a preliminary injunction against the rule.
