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EXCLUSIVE: An education watchdog is filing a civil rights complaint with the Department of Education (DOE) against the University of Wisconsin–Madison for alleged violations of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools.
According to the complaint filed by Defending Education on Wednesday, Wisconsin’s flagship public university, home to 50,000 students, is openly defying discrimination laws in an effort to accommodate transgender students at the expense of biological women.
At issue is the school’s “UW-6009: Inclusive Facilities Policy and Procedures for All Buildings.”
Bascom Hall sits atop Bascom Hill at the University of Wisconsin, Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin. (Kevin Koeppen/Getty Images)
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“In keeping with the university’s policy of nondiscrimination and commitment to inclusion, students, staff, faculty, and visitors have the right to use the restroom or facility most safe and comfortable for them, without being harassed or questioned, regardless of gender expression or sex assigned at birth,” the policy says, adding that “[p]atrons may use the gendered restroom that is safest and most comfortable for them in all UW–Madison facilities.”
Defending Education says the policy guarantees biological men the ability to enter all private female spaces, including bathrooms and locker rooms, on campus, and that women have little recourse.
“If women are uncomfortable sharing multi-stall restrooms with biological males, the University instructs them to use a limited number of gender inclusive, single-occupancy restrooms instead,” Defending Education said on their website accompanying a copy of the complaint. “Forcing women to give up the private spaces and facilities that Title IX guarantees is a violation of the spirit, history, and plain text of that law.”
The entrance to the agriculture building at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. (youngryand/Getty Images)
In its letter to the DOE, Defending Education notes that Title IX extends to all facilities within a school that receives federal funding.
“UW-Madison’s restroom and locker room policy appears to violate Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause,” the letter says. “Accordingly, we ask that the Department promptly investigate all the allegations in this complaint, act swiftly to remedy unlawful policies and practices, and order appropriate relief.”
Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at Defending Education, told Fox News Digital that this is the second civil rights complaint the group has filed against the Wisconsin school for “discriminatory practices” in less than a year.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon during an executive order signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on July 31, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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“The university’s policies are breathtaking in the vastness of their transgender preferencing, leaving biological females at the university without recourse, and in patent violation of Title IX—a law passed explicitly to secure educational equality for women, and for no other purpose,” she said.
“The University is on the wrong side of the law, and likely knows it. Now, the United States Department of Education knows it too.”
Read the full complaint: