Right now, campus speech — such as discussion of sexual issues — is not harassment just because it is “pervasive” — as all widely-held viewpoints about sex and gender are. The speech must also be “severe,” such as calling a woman a gender-based epithet., however. Under it, speech would only need to be “pervasive”“severe” to violate Title IX.
The Biden administration’s proposed regulation uses a definition of sexual harassment that is similar to one that was struck down by the federal appeals court in Atlanta. That court as a violation of the First Amendment a harassment policy at the University of Central Florida that defined harassment to include “verbal” conduct that was “so severe, deprives, or alters the terms or conditions of education … or participation in a university program or activity,” in