Senators Call for Transparency for LGBT Students at Schools Seeking Religious Exemptions

Letter Follows Recent Uptick in Religious Schools Seeking Title IX Waivers to Discriminate Against LGBT Students

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Patty Murray, D-Wash., Al Franken, D-Minn., Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., today called for greater transparency and accountability after a recent rise in the number of colleges and universities seeking religious exemptions under the law that protects students from discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Congress first passed Title IX in 1972 to prohibit colleges and universities that receive federal funding from discriminating against students on the basis of sex. The law contains a provision that allows schools controlled by a religious organization to request religious exemptions. In 2014, the Department of Education issued guidelines making it clear that transgender and gender nonconforming students are also protected from discrimination under Title IX.

In the wake of the department’s guidance, the rate of schools seeking exemptions increased dramatically from only one school in 2013 to more than 43 schools in 2015, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

In a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the senators asked the Education Department to publish on a publicly accessible website the names of all institutions of higher education seeking waivers under Title IX.

“At a very minimum, we believe students, parents, and taxpayers have a right to know when institutions of higher education – as recipients of tax dollars – seek and receive exemptions under Title IX as well as the justifications for those exemptions,” the senators wrote in the letter. “It is critical that the federal government employ transparency in this matter as it will help guide students in making informed higher education decisions,” they wrote.

The letter comes on the same day as the Human Rights Campaign released a report that found 33 schools sought and received exemptions pertaining to Title IX protections on the basis of gender identity. HRC estimates about 73,000 students attend those schools.