Red states set stage for federal showdown over transgender student protections

A growing number of Republican-led states are pledging to reject new Title IX rules finalized this month by the Education Department, teeing up a potential legal battle with the White House over bolstered protections for transgender students. 

Top education officials in Florida, Louisiana, Wyoming, South Carolina and Oklahoma have publicly rebuked the Biden administration’s new Title IX regulations that add protections for transgender students, arguing that the new policies roll back the rights of women and girls by expanding the landmark civil rights law’s definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity. 

In a...