Civil Rights Org Challenges Trump Administration’s Backdoor Attack on Title IX Protections for Trans Students

June 16. 2025

For Immediate Release
Jun 16, 2025

Media Contact
Nazirah Ahmad
[email protected]

Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), which fights for gender justice in workplaces and schools across the country, exposes administration’s use of regulatory loophole to strip student protections through Department of Energy in a public comment issued Monday

SAN FRANCISCO, June 16, 2025 – Today, Equal Rights Advocates submitted a public public comment opposing the Trump Administration’s unprecedented attempt to eliminate civil rights protections for transgender students through a secretive regulatory process that bypasses normal public oversight.

The administration used Direct Final Rules (DFRs) through the Department of Energy, rather than the Department of Education, to avoid the standard public notice and comment period typically required for substantive regulatory changes. This backdoor approach allows the administration to claim that banning transgender students from school sports is “not controversial” while attempting to implement sweeping changes with minimal public awareness.

If allowed to stand, the changes would open the door for schools to ban transgender students from school sports. The changes would also impact many cisgender girls and women, who currently have the legal right to try out for any no-contact men’s sports team if their school does not provide a women’s team equivalent. This right would disappear under the Trump’s Administration’s rule changes.

“The Administration claims this rule change will protect women and girls. But statistically, it will negatively impact more cisgender women and girls than transgender students,” said Maha Ibrahim, Senior Attorney at Equal Rights Advocates. “The Trump Administration is exploiting an obscure regulatory loophole meant only for minor administrative updates to gut fundamental protections for some of our most vulnerable students. This is a calculated assault on both civil rights and democratic transparency.”

Unless significant adverse comments are submitted by today’s deadline, these sweeping changes will automatically take effect on July 16, 2025, making it critical that civil rights organizations, advocates, and the public submit formal opposition to prevent this backdoor elimination of student protections.

ERA’s comment outlines how the administration’s actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act and set a dangerous precedent for dismantling civil rights protections across the board. The organization argues that the use of DFRs for such controversial and substantive changes represents an unprecedented abuse of the regulatory process.

ERA’s submission joins a growing chorus of opposition from civil rights organizations nationwide working to ensure these harmful changes do not go into effect without mandated public participation.

“ERA has spent decades defending Title IX protections through groundbreaking litigation and advocacy,” said Noreen Farrell, Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates. “We successfully challenged the Trump Administration’s attempts to weaken these protections twice before, and we will continue to fight this administration’s efforts to roll back our students’ hard-won civil rights through backroom deals and regulatory manipulation.”

The organization warns that this strategy represents a blueprint for dismantling civil rights protections while keeping the American public in the dark about fundamental policy changes affecting millions of students.

To request an interview with ERA experts, contact Erin Musgrave at [email protected] or (530) 864-7014.