George Fox University in Oregon, which has Quaker roots, got a Title IX exemption from having to provide male-only housing to a transgender student born female.
PQ Monthly, a Portland-area LGBTQ publication, reported on Friday that the U.S. Department of Education gave the Christian university an “unusually speedy” decision – only two months after its request. George Fox initially got the exemption May 23 but the appeal continued through last week.
The transgender student, known as Jayce M., filed a complaint with the Department of Education in April after the university refused to move him to male-only housing from female-only housing. PQ said the student has “medically, socially, and legally transitioned” to his new gender.
Paul Southwick, the student’s lawyer, said they will appeal the ruling.
George Fox has given a lengthy defense of its decision to not let the student live with males on campus since the student complained in April, and cleared up some misconceptions.
Housing for transgender students is something that both religious and secular universities are dealing with, the university said, referring to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights:
Until last year, OCR had not even hinted that the word “sex” in Title IX also meant “gender identity.” It was only on April 29, 2014, after the student filed his complaint, that OCR clearly stated that “Title IX’s sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity.” To date, however, OCR has failed to explain what its new interpretation of Title IX actually requires. For example, no one knows whether OCR believes that Title IX requires universities to permit biological males who identify as female to play on women’s sports teams. Similarly, it is not at all clear whether a university must accede to every housing-related demand a transgender student makes or face federal intervention under Title IX.
The university said Friday in updating the case that, though it was “reported” the Department of Education has closed the case, “George Fox never received the complaint nor received official confirmation of its dismissal.”
It has always offered the student an on-campus single apartment, the university said, and it maintains single-sex dorms “in light of its religious convictions.”
Read PQ‘s coverage here and George Fox’s full response, dating back to April, here.
h/t Religion News Service and Religion Clause
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