On Wednesday, February 5, President Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. This is the fourth executive order targeting transgender people that he has signed since he took office in January.
The Trump administration will roll back the Biden administration’s guidance on Title IX, a civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools and programs that receive federal funding. Under the Biden administration’s guidance, schools were required to allow transgender students to partake in school sports teams and sex separated facilities that align with their gender identities. Trump’s executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” bars athletes assigned male at birth from participating in girls’ and womens’ sports and from using womens’ restrooms and locker rooms. Trump used another of his executive orders titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” to support and enforce this executive order.
Since the order was signed, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has changed its participation policy for transgender athletes, restricting competition in women’s sports to athletes who were assigned female at birth. According to NCAA president Charlie Baker, out of 510,000 athletes competing in collegiate sports, there are fewer than 10 who identify as transgender. However, the association announced that the NCAA men’s sports category will be open to all athletes, regardless of their sex assigned at birth.
After the order was enacted, the US department of state has instructed government officials across the world to deny visas to transgender athletes who are trying to come to the US for sports competitions and to issue permanent visa bans against those who have “misrepresented” their sex on visa applications. This significant change not only impacts individual athletes but also raises concerns about the future of U.S. sports competitions as the restrictions on marginalized groups of people continue to grow.
This order by the Trump Administration diminishes trans representation in the sports community and raises critical questions about equity, fairness, and the future of transgender rights in sports.
