Cecil, a transgender man and a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has found himself at the center of a national fight over gender identity.
Federal regulations that took effect on Thursday clarify that Title IX protections against sex-based discrimination in education also apply to sexual orientation and gender identity. Among other things, the updated regulations require that transgender individuals be able to access campus facilities, such as bathrooms, that align with their gender identity.
But Alabama is among the 26 Republican-led states seeking to overturn the regulations, arguing in lawsuits that the U.S. Education Department has overstepped its authority.
Courts have temporarily blocked the regulations in those states. A judge also ruled that they can’t be enforced at hundreds of individual colleges attended by people affiliated with conservative groups, like Young America’s Foundation, that sued alongside some of the states.
For many colleges, the political squabbling is likely to just be noise: They already have policies on the books protecting against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. But institutions like the University of Alabama system, which includes UAB, are in a difficult spot.
The university system currently includes gender identity in its nondiscrimination policy. At the same time, the system must heed directives from state officials: Alabama’s attorney general has told public school districts to ignore the Title IX regulations, though he didn’t specifically mention colleges.
The university system also must comply with a new Alabama law that directs public colleges to ensure that multi-occupancy bathrooms are designated for use based on biological sex. Cecil, who asked to be identified by only his first name to protect his privacy, is left wondering how he might be affected by that law — which takes effect in October — and by everything else going on.
Here’s what you need to know about the current federal-state standoff over transgender rights and what it might mean for college campuses.
The Politics
The Trump administration’s Title IX rule, finalized in 2020 under Betsy DeVos, the former education secretary, remains in place in the 26 states subject to the temporary court injunctions. The hallmark of that policy was expanded rights for those accused of sexual violence. Trump’s Education Department never put in place its own regulations pertaining to the rights of transgender students.
The Trump administration did, however, rescind Obama-era Title IX guidance that directed colleges to allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity.
“There could be many legal reasons for doing that, including just not wanting to issue non-regulatory guidance,” said Melissa Carleton, a higher-education lawyer at the firm Bricker Graydon. “But it left a hole in what schools could rely on for best practices.”
When President Biden took office in 2021, he issued an executive order saying that sex discrimination under Title IX should also encompass mistreatment on the basis of gender identity, pointing to a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision that banned discrimination against LGBTQ people in the workplace. Biden tasked the Education Department with updating the Title IX regulations.
That’s a step too far for many conservative advocates, who worry the 52-year-old law is straying from its original focus on biological sex. They have a champion in Trump, who has promised to reverse safeguards for transgender students on his first day in office if he’s elected this November.
The future of a separate Biden administration rule on transgender students’ participation in athletics is unclear; it’s been delayed until 2025.
Federal pendulum-swinging has been a pain for campus Title IX coordinators, but felt less by college students, who are in and out in the time it takes to install new regulations. Still, Katie Eyer, a professor at Rutgers Law School and an expert on anti-LGBTQ discrimination, said the landscape has created a “widely felt sense of anxiety” for some students, even in states that are more supportive of transgender rights.
“It’s really an astounding volume of legislation that’s been targeted at this particular community, not just to transgender people, but specifically at transgender youth,” Eyer said. “Coming into that difficult coming-of-age, with that backdrop, I think is hard for many people, regardless of where they are.”
Bathroom Bills
Attempts to regulate bathroom use in government facilities began in North Carolina in 2016. That law was later overturned amid fierce opposition from major corporations that did business in the state.
Since then, roughly a dozen states have passed legislation restricting transgender people’s access to bathrooms that align with their gender identity, though some of these only apply to K-12 schools and not to colleges. In Florida, both private and public colleges must comply with a statute requiring people to use bathrooms that correspond with their sex at birth.
Some institutions in states with “bathroom bills” have long had protections for gender identity and sexual orientation, Carleton said. “So when you have a state law saying, ‘Guess what, you can’t do that anymore,’ it’s something that conflicts with something that maybe the school has done for decades at that point,” she added.
Experts said restrictions on the facilities transgender students can use and the support their institutions can provide send a message that they’re not welcome. That can hit hard for a population that already has higher rates of suicidal ideation and substance-use issues.
“We see a direct connection between these targeted attacks on LGBTQ people and the mental health of the LGBTQ community,” said Elana Redfield, the federal-policy director for the Williams Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. “As this uncertainty continues to unfold … it also is going to continue to have a toll on transgender youth.”
Spotlight on Alabama
While Alabama’s Senate Bill 129, which passed in March, is best known for banning diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and programs at public colleges, there’s also a provision about designating restrooms based on biological sex.
It doesn’t change anything in practice at UAB, where Cecil is enrolled, as bathrooms are already labeled male and female, a spokesperson wrote in an email. The university also has hundreds of single-occupancy restrooms available, the spokesperson said.
For Cecil, however, the legislation feels like a signal that he is not welcome to use the bathroom that aligns with his gender identity.
Going to the bathroom is already stressful, he said. “I try to use the men’s bathroom as much as I can, or at least when I feel safe,” he said.” Sometimes that’s late at night, or at times when he knows the majority of students are in class. Other times, it depends on how he thinks others perceive him: Am I passing as a man today?
The Chronicle requested comment from Will Barfoot, a Republican state senator and author of SB 129, but did not receive a response.
Some student groups in Alabama support the new law, such as the College Republican Federation of Alabama. The organization has not talked about the bathroom provision but fully supports the legislation, said Riley McArdle, its vice chair. McArdle said she believes that gender is not a social construct.
Broader Impacts
Public colleges in a handful of states, including Utah, Texas, and Florida, have shuttered their LGBTQ centers in response to anti-DEI legislation. While private colleges and student groups have tried to fill gaps, transgender students and other vulnerable groups have mourned the loss of spaces where they could be themselves.
Several states have also passed laws restricting access to healthcare that helps people transition; Alabama did so in 2022 for anyone under the age of 19. Cecil, who was in high school at the time, said he had to drive across the Alabama-Louisiana border to hop on a Zoom call for his doctor to fill his medication. His experience almost made him enroll in an out-of-state college. But the in-state UAB was the more affordable option.
Cecil said his professors in the nursing program have been welcoming, with some even checking up on him after the bill’s passage. Still, recent developments in Alabama have him thinking about relocating to further his nursing studies.
Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey, the Alabama state director for the Human Rights Campaign, said her organization warned Alabama lawmakers about how SB 129 — with its provisions restricting campus inclusion efforts as well as bathroom access — could harm the state’s economy.
Why would policymakers target services and programs that support transgender people, Anderson-Harvey asked, “when we know that this is a help to bring new students to the state and prepare students for the real world?”
Anderson-Harvey also said that she had witnessed “remarkable resilience and solidarity within the community” in recent months. “Many transgender individuals are finding strength in their support networks and are continuing to advocate for their rights, even in the face of adversity,” she said.
Cecil said there are ways for college faculty and staff members to support transgender students during this time.
“I would like them to keep fighting their fight in this, because also this affects them and the demographic they’ll see in their classes,” he said. “Support your students in any way you can. Whether it be writing to your representatives, calling your legislators … anything will help.”
