Tennessee AG: Anti-Trans Bill Will 'Almost Certainly' Violate Title IX

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery said on Monday that a proposed transgender bill would “almost certainly” violate Title IX, possibly costing the state millions of dollars in federal funding.

House Bill 2414 seeks to prohibit students in public institutions from using the bathroom that does not conform to their gender at birth.

In 2014, the Department of Education made clear that Title IX protections extend to transgender students. “Title IX's sex discrimination prohibitions extend to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity,” the agency's Office for Civil Rights wrote.

According to The Tennessean, Tennessee receives about $3 billion a year in federal funding for public education.

“In sum, if a transgender student is required by a school district in Tennessee to use a restroom or locker room facility that is consistent with his or her anatomical gender rather than his or her gender expression or gender identity, and if that student files a complaint, DOE, applying its current interpretation of Title IX, will almost certainly require the school district to permit the student access to the facility consistent with his or her gender expression, and refusal to do so could very well result in loss of federal funding – at least until DOE’s interpretation is overruled by authoritative and binding judicial decision,” Slatery wrote.

Slatery was asked to weigh in on the proposed legislation by two state representatives, Democrat Mike Stewart and Republican Harry Brooks.

“The fact that the attorney general has recognized that this will result in significantly reduced federal funds for the state of Tennessee should put an end to the discussion about this bill,” Stewart said.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT advocate, said in a statement that it hopes Slatery's opinion will sway lawmakers to drop the bill.

“Any compassionate person can see how cruel this legislation targeting transgender children is. But this warning from the state’s top lawyer also makes clear that the terrible bill puts millions of federal education dollars in peril, risking the quality of education received by every single student attending Tennessee’s public schools,” said JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president of policy and political affairs at HRC.