Concerns about restrooms and locker rooms has the Montana Family Foundation (MFF) speaking out.
It sent a letter to school districts across the state saying schools woudl be violating federal law “if they allow biological males to access female restrooms, locker rooms, changing areas, and other intimate facilities.”
Watch Montana Family Foundation Title IX story here:
The letter, dated Sept. 15, states that any school enforcing policies that force female students to share private facilities with biological males is unlawful and that it denies girls equal educational opportunities.
“It's about all of the facilities, your girls' locker room, your girls' restroom,” said Derek Oestreicher, MFF chief legal counsel. “Males should not be accessing those facilities.”
Oestreicher says the Biden administration expanded the definition of gender identity by including transgender women.
President Trump issued an executive order earlier this year reversing that guidance and reinstating the original intent of Title IX in the 1972 educational amendments, and protecting girls and women and committing to withholding federal funding from school districts who don't comply.
“It's just really about equality for girls and to ensure that girls aren't discriminated against in those educational and athletic opportunities,” Oestreicher said.
But some say not allowing biological males or transgender females in girls' restrooms is a safety issue.
“It is not safe for, for example, a trans woman to use a men's restroom,” said Marcus Frye, 406 Pride board president.
Frye says transgender make up one percent of the population and there are no safety or privacy issues.
“Most of these facilities are bathrooms where you have privacy,” said Frye. “You have your individual stalls. You have your individual shower compartments.”
Q2 contacted a few school districts, but no one would go on camera.
One district did put in a unisex restroom.
Another district responded that there seems to be a dispute between federal and state law.
However, the Montana attorney general says the law is clear.
“There's nothing in Title IX, in that piece of federal legislation, and now federal law that says anything about transgender,” said Attorney General Austin Knudsen, R-Mont.
ACLU Montana also declined an on-camera interview, but Alex Rate, its deputy director/legal director did say on the phone: “We don't believe Title IX bans transgender from women's sports.”
But Brian Michelotti, executive director of the Montana High School Association (MHSA), disagrees.
He does say there have been no issues in high school sports in Montana and the MHSA board policy is to follow state law.
The 2025 Montana Legislatiure passed House Bill 300, to keep males out of girls sports, restrooms and lockerrooms.
“We only allow them to participate at the gender that they were born with,” Michelotti said.
Oestreicher says the MFF will monitor school policies statewide.
“Our genuine belief is that all the school districts in Montana are going to comply with Title IX.” Oestreicher said.
