Last month, the Department of Education released its long-anticipated final regulations that broadly expand the protections of Title IX. Whether the regulations actually go into effect as scheduled on Aug. 1, 2024, remains up in the air: Over 20 states have filed lawsuits objecting to the department's regulations, with their focus on the department's expansion of sex discrimination to include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" (consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County decision).

And even if the regulations go into effect, you may wonder why you should care if your organization is not subject to Title IX.  Frankly, you might not. While Title IX applies mostly to educational institutions, any organization receiving Department funds for education programs, such as libraries or museums, is also subject to Title IX. Through our work with clients who are subject to Title IX and who are impacted by the new regulations, we can't help but point out that when one reads the department's 1,000+ pages in the Federal Register, one might lose count of the times the department references Title VII and its case law (like Bostock), with the department reasoning more than once that its new regulations draw from Title VII law and seek to make the requirements under the two laws more consistent.