More than two dozen religiously affiliated colleges and universities across the United States have received exemptions from the federal civil rights protections provided under Title IX since 2014, documents show, waivers that activists said allow them to discriminate against students and employees on the basis of categories like sexual orientation and gender identity.

The exemptions are in some cases wide-reaching and exempt schools from abiding by provisions of the law that they feel are inconsistent with their religious beliefs on a range of topics, including gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status and whether a person has had an abortion.

School administrators say the exemptions are a defensive measure that lets them abide by their religious beliefs during a time of social and legal change on issues of sexuality and gender, but gay and transgender activists criticized them as an open door to discrimination.

“What these universities are seeking is a license to discriminate while still receiving taxpayer money, and they are doing it out of an animus toward transgender people,” said Victoria M. Rodriguez-Roldan, a lawyer at the National L.G.B.T.Q. Task Force, an advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.