A coalition of seven civil rights groups have called on the federal Education Department to investigate policies at two Texas school districts that prohibit students from using facilities that align with their gender identity and ban books that reference “gender fluidity.”
In two civil rights complaints filed Monday, the groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas and the Children’s Defense Fund of Texas, allege that policies recently passed by the school boards of the Keller Independent School District and Frisco Independent School District deliberately and illegally discriminate against transgender students.
Last week, a majority of members of the Keller ISD school board voted in favor of barring library materials that show “gender fluidity,” which free speech groups and LGBTQ+ activists say sends the wrong message to transgender students, according to The Hill.
Filed Monday with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, the complaint states that the district’s new policy is in violation of Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex for schools that receive federal funding.
“The effect of the policy, absent federal civil rights intervention, will be to stigmatize LGBTQ+ and particularly transgender, non-binary, gender diverse, and intersex students in Keller ISD, to uniquely deprive them of the opportunity to read books that reflect their identities, and to create an environment in which unlawful discrimination flourishes,” the complaint reads.
The library policy approved by the Keller ISD board last week is the latest move the district has made to shield students from LGBTQ content and issues.
In August, the district ordered more than 40 challenged books be pulled from school library shelves, including the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe and “The Bluest Eye,” by Toni Morrison, according to The Hill.
More than 1,600 books were banned in more than 5,000 schools in the last year, with most of the targeted titles being about racial or gender issues, according to a recent report from the nonprofit PEN America, which advocates for free speech in literature.
The second complaint alleging sex discrimination filed against the Frisco ISD school board on Monday claims that a policy adopted last week that prohibits transgender students from using the bathroom or locker room that aligns with their gender identity also violates Title IX.
“This policy seemingly allows Frisco ISD and its teachers and administrators to ignore and erase students’ gender identities in violation of federal law,” the complaint states.
Students must use the facilities that correspond to their biological sex, according to the district’s new policy, and the district may disregard a students’ amended gender identification on their birth certificate.
“School districts have no right to question students’ sexual characteristics such as genitalia, hormones, internal anatomy, or chromosomes,” the groups wrote in the complaint.
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