- [Cailley] Utah legislators voted to ignore new federal protections for transgender students last Wednesday.

The new protections come from an expansion of Title IX to include gender identity.

- They've unilaterally taken action that has put their directives in conflict with existing state law.

- [Cailley] Representative Neil Walter says, those state laws are HB 11 and HB 257, the 2022 Transgender Sports Bill and the 2024 Transgender Bathroom Bill.

Supporters say these bills protect women.

- Women for years fought for a seat at the table, and again, fought to have sports and protections under the law to be treated equally as females.

- [Cailley] Meanwhile, outside, activists protested the vote.

- It's quite ironic to them, see that they are now insisting after all these years of removing such funding for feminist-led initiatives, that they are now somehow protecting cis women.

I think the people of the state are not fooled, we know that's just rhetoric.

- [Cailley] Title IX has offered protection from sex-based discrimination since 1972.

The expansion of it that the Utah legislature voted to ignore would require public schools to allow transgender students to use facilities that align with their gender identity.

- When trans lives are under attack, what do we do?

- [Crowd] Stand up, fight back!

- [Ermiya] Being able to have that kind of protection is very vital for trans kids who experience higher rates of sexual violence, higher rates of harassment.

So for the governor to ultimately decide to remove that layer of protection sends a huge message that he does not care about the trans kids of the state.

- Earlier this year, lawmakers passed the Utah Constitutional Sovereignty Act, which means that the legislature can basically ignore any federal rules that they think are unconstitutional unless a court orders them to comply.

- Aren't these kids just as worthy of health, safety, and wellbeing?

These are the kids that we are trying to fight against right now that we are doing battle with the federal government on?

- [Cailley] This marks the first time that Utah lawmakers have used the new law to bypass federal regulations.

The final vote to ignore the new federal protections passed mostly on party lines with only one Republican lawmaker joining all Democrats in opposition.

For PBS Utah, I'm Cailley Chella reporting.