Over the summer, the anti-LGBTQ+ group Moms for Liberty brought on a federal lawsuit in Kansas aimed at blocking protections for transgender students in 2,000 schools across the US, including 32 schools in 19 Massachusetts districts where there are members of the group, according to a report in the New Bedford Light.
Reports New Bedford Light:
On the South Coast, the high schools in Old Rochester Regional and Taunton are part of the judge’s order. Elsewhere in Massachusetts, the order applies to elementary and high schools from Boston to Billerica and Medford to Longmeadow. Moms for Liberty and other plaintiffs oppose federal Title IX expansion in these schools, claiming that any protections for transgender students will essentially unravel protections for women — the original purpose of the 1972 federal law.
But in Massachusetts, state law already offers the same protections for transgender students that Moms for Liberty is challenging at the federal level. So Massachusetts schools will still be able to uphold their current policies, legal experts say. Still, legal challenges could be on the horizon.
The new protections that Moms for Liberty opposes clarify that discrimination on the basis of sex “includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
Patrick Francomano, the general counsel for the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC), has had a busy summer following these decisions, advising school boards around the commonwealth. Francomano said that schools may not have to change their day-to-day policies or operations, but said “it’s just a matter of time” before a new wave of challenges and lawsuits arrive in Massachusetts after this decision.
“The regulations for Title IX — whether or not they’re valid — do not change what’s prohibited under Massachusetts law.” In Massachusetts, it’s already illegal to discriminate based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
Read the complete New Bedford Light story here.
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