Voters are divided over the Biden administration’s Title IX changes ahead of the election

In a new national poll released this week, voters signaled they are divided over the Biden administration’s Title IX changes to expand gender identity protections ahead of the general election.

The Center Square voter poll conducted by Noble Predictive Insights found voters are almost evenly split on the Department of Education’s controversial rule change.

The latest poll of about 2,500 likely voters found that 45% of respondents said they opposed the Biden administration’s equity-focused push to ban discrimination based on gender identity, while 40% said they supported the changes.

David Byler, research director at Noble Predictive Insights, told The Center Square that neither Republicans nor Democrats have a clear lead on the issue.

“So what we can say is that we know this is a hotly contested issue and we know that both sides have some messages that work for some voters, but that specifically on Title IX, no one has the edge yet Byler said.

“We can also say that on some other issues around K-12 education and transgender rights, you can clearly see a more conservative majority.”

Byler said Title IX, a law that governs how all educational institutions that accept federal funding handle matters of gender discrimination, goes essentially unnoticed by most voters.

“When you ask people about specific policies, the more dubious you get, the more people you get to decide on the spot, and the more flexibility you should expect,” Byler said.

“So Title IX is a specific topic that people just don’t know about unless you’re a total news junkie or your life circumstances are such that you’ve come across it. People don’t think about Title IX.”

“They may be thinking about transgender issues in the broadest cultural sense, but they don’t know what Biden did on Title IX,” Byler said. “You don’t know what’s going on. You have to explain something.”

“And when you explain something, it really depends on how you phrase it. When we wrote this question, we tried to keep it short and succinct, but we presented what we believe are the strongest individual arguments from both sides,” Byler added.

“The Biden Administration recently expanded Title IX, which originally protected people from sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, to include LGBTQ+ people,” the question states.

“The impact of the change includes strengthening protections from harassment for LGBTQ+ people and allowing transgender women to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms.”

“But pending lawsuits challenging the new rules have blocked their implementation in 26 states,” the question states. “Do you agree or oppose the changes to Title IX?”

Byler said it was important to offer the side that supports Biden’s changes, which he called a “pro-fairness argument,” and to offer the side that opposes Biden’s changes, which “includes a lot of the cultural elements that we think of.” know that they are unpopular in this regard”. Situation.”

The Biden administration used its federal legislative authority to include protections for LGBTQ+ students in the federal nondiscrimination law it finalized this year.

However, as suggested in the question, the changes have since been challenged in courts, which have barred the Biden administration from implementing the rule in 26 states and thousands of schools and colleges while the litigation continues.

The poll’s results mirrored the results of a survey this summer in which 48% of voters said they disagreed with the Biden administration’s expansion.

Byler said the minor changes are not enough to suggest a shift in public opinion because the issue is so specific.

“I wouldn’t make too much difference between the result of this poll and the result of the last poll,” Byler said. “When you go into a detailed policy like this, your survey result is always going to be a little more fuzzy.”

Byler said voters are more decisive on certain policies and outstanding issues.

“If you have more direct questions about trans issues, which we have further down the survey, you see much more consistent, much clearer differences, much fewer people saying ‘less safe,’ much fewer people in the ‘somewhat’ camp.” Byler said.

As Republican attorneys general and advocacy groups have challenged the expansion of Title IX on the grounds that it violates the law’s intended purpose and endangers women and girls, courts have barred the Biden administration from implementing the rule in 26 states.

69 percent of Republican voters said they opposed the changes, while only 18 percent supported expanding the rule.

Conversely, 65% of Democrats said they supported expanding Title IX to include gender identity.

However, true independents were more likely to oppose the changes: 50% said they opposed the rule and 30% said they supported it.

Byler said Title IX, while important, is a smaller issue for voters making up their minds before next month’s general election.

“People don’t vote directly on Title IX,” Byler said. “Title IX is one issue in a broad basket of issues that people are paying attention to when they look at these candidates.”