(The Sentinel) – Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is warning the Kansas State Board of Education in a Wednesday letter that gender identity language in the school lunch contract districts are required to sign is in violation of federal law.
“It has come to my attention that supply vendors for Child Nutrition and Wellness Programs in the state of Kansas have been including language in their draft contracts that expands the definition of prohibited sex discrimination to include “gender identity” discrimination and “sexual orientation” discrimination, and that they are doing so in part to comply with State of Kansas Executive Order No. 19-02, issued on January 15, 2019,” Kobach wrote in a letter to Board Commissioner Dr. Randy Watson and members of the state board. “Please be advised that parts of Kansas Executive Order No. 19-02 are inconsistent with federal law and are inconsistent with recent federal executive orders directing the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Education not to expand the definition of sex discrimination to encompass gender identity discrimination.”
In 2020 — the last time a new contract was released — section K paragraph 3 of the contract stated “In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA. (Emphasis added).
However, the language in that paragraph for the coming school year says “In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.”
Kobach said that language is unacceptable.
“The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas recently held that discrimination on the basis of sex in Title IX cannot be redefined by regulation to also include discrimination on the basis of gender identity without undermining the statute’s protection of biological females in education,” Kobach wrote.
Indeed, in an injunction, the court stated:
The DoE’s reinterpretation of Title IX to place gender identity on equal footing with (or in some instances arguably stronger footing than) biological sex would subvert Congress goals of protecting biological women in education. The Final Rule would, among other things, require schools to subordinate the fears, concerns, and privacy interests of biological women to the desires of transgender biological men to shower, dress, and share restroom facilities with their female peers.
Kobach said this holding is the controlling interpretation of Title IX in Kansas and is reiterated by federal executive orders as well. Kobach also says the same facts render Governor Laura Kelly’s 2019 Executive Order requiring protection based on gender no longer applies.
“The relevant provisions of Kansas Executive Order No. 19-02 are therefore preempted by federal law,” Kobach said. “I therefore request that you bring relevant contracts into compliance with these orders by removing any language referring to ‘sexual orientation,’ or ‘gender identity.’ There is no federal requirement that such language be included. And, in the case of the latter, the inclusion of such language would be contrary to Title IX and the holding of Kansas v. U.S. Dept. of Education.“
