Paula Scanlan, ambassador for the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) tells AFN, "This is really so important for every woman," especially with the Biden administration putting out these new Title IX rules.
Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 states that "no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
The Biden administration wants the word "sex" to include gender identity. As a result, the Department of Education wants everything from bathrooms to locker rooms and sporting events to allow for males in female areas.
Governor Sanders (pictured above) agrees with female athletes and activists who say that is a violation of their Title IX rights, and she is not having it.
"If Biden gets his way, female college students will shower and change next to male college students. Referring to someone using biologically correct pronouns will get you hauled in front of a disciplinary board for harassment, and scholarships previously reserved for women will now be open to anyone claiming to be a woman," she stated last week at the Arkansas Capitol in Little Rock.
"My message to Joe Biden and the federal government is that we will not comply. In a moment, I will sign an executive order reiterating our laws and instructing our educational institutions and the Arkansas Department of Education to follow them. And if President Biden threatens our state with loss of educational funding because we refuse to go along with his election year pandering, Arkansas will take the federal government to court."
More than a dozen Republican-led states have already sued the Education Department over the new regulations, arguing that the expanded definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity is unlawful. State education officials in GOP-controlled states have also instructed schools to ignore the new Title IX rule.
That, according to Gov. Sanders, is because this issue goes far beyond a single locker room or a missed scholarship.
"The truth is important," she declared. "Biology is important. The differences between men and women are important. Title IX was created because of those fundamental truths and for half a century has allowed women and girls to access colleges, sports, and scholarships that were previously unavailable. We won't let Biden threaten that, and we certainly will not let him erase our existence as women."
As for Scanlan, she, Riley Gaines, and others with IWF will continue to travel the country and speak about women's privacy, safety, and sports.
"I'm personally from the northeast," notes Scanlan, a graduate of University of Pennsylvania, where she was a member of the women's swim team. "None of the states in the northeast have passed anything like this, and so it's important we try to reach those states as well."
