Education Department repeals Biden-era Title IX rule

The Education Department published a final rule on Sept. 29 that repeals the Biden administration's 2024 Title IX regulations and restores the text that stood before them¹. The 2024 rule, Inside Higher Ed reports, said that Title IX bars discrimination based on gender identity, and it never took effect nationwide².

What the rule changes

The Education Department says the rule puts into regulation what the law has said all along: Title IX's protections are based on sex, not "gender identity."³ In practice, it reinstates the 2020 rule from Trump's first term, with what the Department called four minor changes to comply with other court orders and policy changes. The final rule was published in the Federal Register¹ and took effect September 29, 2026, without a notice-and-comment period. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the change formalizes how the administration has enforced Title IX since January 2025⁴, and officials wrote in the notice that the action reflects "no essential legal or policy determination by the Department, other than the fact that the 2024 Rule is not in force."² A forwarded Big Family Friday newsletter reported the step and called it "Yet another win for sanity and for women."⁵

The Department's regulatory agenda lists a planned clarification: “clarifying that implementation of Title IX is to be based on sex, which shall refer exclusively to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.”²

Why girls’ sports matter

Family Brief's position is plain: girls deserve their own teams, and men do not belong in women's sports. Inside Higher Ed reported that the 2024 rule said Title IX bars discrimination based on gender identity; the Department's repeal restores the regulatory text that existed before the 2024 rulemaking. Voters are already there: a Napolitan News/RMG poll from November 2024, cited in American Principles Project's Defeating They/Them report, found 75% of voters say biological males should not compete in women's sports⁶. The sex-based definition remains a planned change on the Department’s regulatory agenda, not part of this repeal².

The legal fight

Inside Higher Ed reports that the Biden rule allowed students to use bathrooms and locker rooms aligned with their gender identity. The rule was on hold in 26 states after lawsuits from 26 Republican attorneys general. In January 2025, Chief Judge Danny Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky vacated the Biden rule nationwide. Trump stayed out of the issue in 2020 and lost; back in office, he signed the Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports and two-sexes executive orders⁷. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee amended its athlete safety policy on July 21, 2025, citing Executive Order 14201 and fair and safe women's competition⁸. Girls'-sports protection laws have now passed in 26 states, and Terry Schilling, in The Assembly's 2025 profile, credits APP with helping pass them⁹.

Sources

1. Recodification of Title IX Rules, 91 FR 61308
2. Trump Administration Formally Rescinds Biden Title IX Rule
3. American Principles Project on X: "Trump is protecting young female athletes from the left's radical transgender ideology.
4. How Trump’s Title IX reversal upends protection for LGBTQ+ students
5. Email tip "Fwd: Big Family Friday Newsletter" (received 2026-10-02) linking https://bcu8ldbbb.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001WAVd2FlaB8zb6SR4hdaiMme9RLWh00L3OdRWjX6OgKGduc3O_rlV2dburZ6OYBxP-_jvQQg_uPg3GuN7GJhocRKx2Q1m13g5j9INu3KxsY8G69PDmwx95Thm78hM-bL86VlGhHGFzvFoMfgmTc4wVZ0yXoISnM80VksTAygzAuvmS, 2026-10-02
6. Defeating They/Them (American Principles Project, 2024)
7. POLITICO Magazine, 'The Wedge Issue That's Dividing Trumpworld', Aug 7, 2020
8. 2026-09-23 Testimony Bock, 2026-09-23
9. The Assembly (NC), profile of Terry Schilling, 2025