RALEIGH — A trio of LGBTQ activist groups in the western part of North Carolina that previously threatened to file a Title IX complaint over the Parents’ Bill of Rights law filed paperwork with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
The groups that filed the complaint are the Campaign for Southern Equality, Youth OUTright WNC, and PFLAG Asheville.
In addition to the Parents’ Bill of Rights law (SB49), the complaint has added the bill known as Fairness in Women’s Sports (HB574), which bars males from playing on female sports teams.
Instead of suing the legislature over the two laws, the groups are targeting the state educational agencies responsible for carrying out the law; the N.C. Department of Public Instruction and State Board of Education.
“Under the leadership of the North Carolina State Board of Education (SBE) and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), local school districts are barring LGBTQ-affirming content, outing transgender students, erecting barriers to LGBTQ students receiving needed health care at school as well as support from educators, and prohibiting transgender girls from playing athletics consistent with their gender identity,” the complaint claims.
“SB49 provides transparency for parents—plain and simple. Parents, not the state, are ultimately responsible for raising their children,” State Superintendent Catherine Truitt said in a statement to North State Journal. “The Parents Bill of Rights ensures that parents remain aware of major health-related matters impacting their child’s growth and development.”
Despite the SBE working on a guide for districts for the Parents’ Bill of Rights, the complaint alleges that, “SBE, DPI, and the Superintendent have failed in their obligations to provide educators with guidance” on whether and how to implement the two laws.
The complaint’s introductory pages bypass parental input in favor of school district action while claiming “these pernicious mandates are already harming students: culls of curriculum and libraries; students forced back into the closet; students walled off from supportive services and outlets beneficial to their mental health; and a pall of fear cast over the whole of the state’s public education system.”
“LGBTQ-affirming materials are being removed from schools,” the complaint alleges, citing examples of districts following the law which bars materials and the teaching of sexual topics, including gender identity, to young children in grades K-4.
Per state statutes in place before the Parents’ Bill of Rights, courses and discussions of sexual topics are to begin in grade seven except for some brief introductory topics like puberty covered in grade five.
The complaint goes on to cite “K-8 School Administrator (A78)” who openly admits to violating existing state law:
“Here at [redacted], we have a comprehensive health education program for grades K-8. Our program includes crucial topics for child development, like how to be a good friend and how to be respectful to others and ourselves. Our program also includes teaching about consent and gender identity.”
The next testimonial, given by an unnamed parent, inadvertently reveals that their child’s elementary school is also violating state law as it had been already introducing sexual topics in fourth grade but SB 49 made them shift it to fifth grade.
Another allegation includes school officials “outing LGBTQ students to their parents and peers” supported by testimonials from unnamed students, mainly in high school. Many of these students admit to using alternate pronouns publicly and describe parents who aren’t supportive of their choice.
The complaint also criticizes parental notification requirements for mental and physical health interactions of their minor children, claiming it puts children in danger of abuse at home. As with other parts of the complaint, there are already laws in place to protect students who may be abused and SB49’s language directly cites those laws.
In targeting the SBE and DPI, the complaint may have a better chance of success under the Biden administration, which has sought to alter Title IX to force states to allow males in female spaces and sports based on “gender identity.”
Truitt has already pushed back on the Biden administration’s proposed changes to Title IX.
In a May 1, 2023 letter to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Truitt asked the administration to “maintain the intent of Title IX as it pertains to safety and fairness in women’s sports.”
“As a mom to two daughters who are currently college and high school athletes respectively, I strongly believe we must maintain a level playing field in women’s sports — one where biological sex supersedes gender preference,” Truitt wrote. “There are inherent and intrinsic biological differences between men and women that impact athletic performance.”
By the end of May, Cardona’s department had put the changes on hold after receiving over 240,000 public comments; twice as many as the agency had received in prior proposed changes to Title IX.
Cardona pushed back finalization of the changes until November 2023. The changes were subsequently delayed again until March 2024.
