On July 7, the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service announced that it was rescinding a 2022 Biden administration interpretation of discrimination based on “sex,” which included gender identity and sexual orientation.
The decision leaves the approximately two million LGBTQ students in the country vulnerable to food-based discrimination.
While the memo states that the Biden administration’s enforcement of the May 2022 Bostock “policy update” was illegal, this claim is questionable. While the Supreme Court issued an injunction against it in 2024, it also ruled in the 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County case that sexual orientation and gender identity were covered under federal prohibitions on sex discrimination, using a similar line of reasoning to Title VII. Federal courts have applied this decision to Title IX and recognize that Title IX protects LGBTQ students.
This reversal will also affect the National School Lunch Program, which provides 29.6 million students with food on a daily basis.
