GUNTERSVILLE — The Biden administration’s recent changes to Title IX recognizing gender identity as a protected class have yet to go into effect in Alabama thanks to a last-minute injunction by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. However, that could change depending on future court decisions, meaning parents and their children could be forced to embrace the new rules.
That’s why Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall joined State Rep. Susan DuBose (R-Hoover) and Alliance Defending Freedom counsel Sara Beth Nolan as panelists at a Title IX town hall in Guntersville Monday evening.
The overarching message of the event, hosted by Moms for Liberty and LOCAL Alabama, was one of respect for people’s opinions, personal freedoms and scientific reality.
After Alabama Republican Party chair John Wahl and Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth spoke briefly to introduce the panelists and the event, Dubose opened by emphasizing the importance of female-only sports. She referenced the recent controversy surrounding the 2024 Paris Olympics, where a biological male competed in and won women’s boxing. DuBose’s comments were immediately met with heckling from those in the crowd who supported changing Title IX. The outbursts would continue for much of the evening.
DuBose then cited data from shewon.org, a website that archives the "achievements of female athletes displaced by males in women’s sporting events." The website reported that 1,055 medals in 37 sports were taken from young girls because males competed in their sport.
After passing legislation in 2023 barring collegiate athletes from competing on sports teams for the opposite sex, Dubose said her bill defining male and female will pass next session.
“I will always stand up for Alabamians so they do not have to lie,” she said, referring to using preferred pronouns.
Marshall began his speech by saying the issue surrounding women’s rights and Title IX were “as important as anything” he has dealt with as AG.
He gave a brief history of Title IX and its successes in increasing the number of women in sports and achieving higher-education degrees. Marshall said changing Title IX threatens that progress, but he felt confident the Biden administration would not win in the end.
He said 26 states, including Alabama, had sued the Biden administration over his changes to Title IX, and all 26 prevailed. Marshall also pointed out that even among Democrats, polling shows most people are against boys in girls' bathrooms and on girls’ sports teams.
“We’re going to continue to fight this fight,” Marshall said. “I believe it’s what the people of Alabama want me to be able to do, and it’s the right thing to do, to be able to protect our laws.”
Nolan, who has represented clients affected by gender issues being forced in schools, told of teachers who were fired for not using a student's preferred pronoun and of student-athletes made to feel unsafe for having to be in the locker room with a member of the opposite sex.
“It is a problem to that one family. And in meeting these clients, it is a problem to that one girl. I can tell you her childhood has greatly changed. It’s important to that teacher who can support their children because they wouldn’t deny their values,” Nolan said, encouraging parents to remain active in the discussion next legislative session.
After the meeting concluded with a round of questions and answers, 1819 News spoke with an attendee, Jordan Price, who identified as transgender and was there to show support for the rewriting of Title IX to include gender identity.
“I care a lot about trans people and trans rights,” Price said. “... It’s really disappointing in my eyes that we’re putting so much resources and time towards telling me which bathroom I should be using when we have people dying of poverty on the streets, people dying of the fentanyl crisis. The education system of Alabama is 49th in the United States out of 50. There are so much bigger problems and these people just want to rally around the idea that I’m invading spaces I shouldn’t be in when I really am just trying to exist.”
Moms for Liberty is planning to host another Title IX town hall in Fairhope on October 21.
To connect with the story's author or comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com or find him on X and Facebook.
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