White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. (Washington Blade photo by Christopher Kane)
During a briefing with reporters Aug. 7, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the Biden-Harris administration’s expansion of Title IX to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Changes to the rules came pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that LGBTQ+ employees are legally protected from sex-based discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The new policy, which took effect last week, also revokes Trump-era rules governing how schools must respond to allegations of sexual assault, which were widely considered imbalanced in ways favoring those accused of sex crimes.
Asked to respond to conservatives who warn the policy will harm women and girls, including the Republican state attorneys general who have filed legal challenges and the GOP governors who have vowed to disregard the new rules, Jean-Pierre began by stipulating that “there’s still ongoing litigation, so I would have to refer you to DOJ.”
“More broadly,” she said, “every student deserves the right to feel safe. Every student deserves the right to feel safe in schools. That’s what the rule is all about: Strengthening and restoring vital protections that the previous administration took away.”
“Ending violence against women and girls has been a priority” for President Joe Biden not just during his tenure in the White House but also throughout his decades-long career in the U.S. Senate, the press secretary added.
“This is an important step in an ongoing work to end campus sexual assault,” Jean-Pierre said. “That’s what we want to see. And I cannot speak any further to the litigation.”
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