Earlier today, United States President Donald Trump signed his executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” which completely bans any transgender athlete from participating in women’s athletics.
NCAA President Charlie Baker issued a statement this afternoon, confirming that the NCAA will be complying with the standard and they would spend the coming days reviewing their policies to align accordingly.
“We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, president Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard” According to the statement, the NCAA “will continue to help foster welcoming environments on campuses for all student-athletes.” Baker also mentioned that the NCAA is ready to “assist schools as they look for ways to support any student-athlete affected by the change in the policy.”
The order states that the federal government will “rescind all funds from educational programs” that allow transgender athletes to compete in categories with men. According to the order, the definitions of male and female are congruent with those provided in the “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” order from President Trump’s first day in office. That definition reads:
“(a) “Sex” shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female. “Sex” is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of “gender identity.”
(b) “Women” or “woman” and “girls” or “girl” shall mean adult and juvenile human females, respectively.
(c) “Men” or “man” and “boys” or “boy” shall mean adult and juvenile human males, respectively.
(d) “Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.
(e) “Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”
This a shift from the way transgender participation has been treated in the past, where transgender female athletes just had to meet a particular testosterone requirement in order to be allowed to compete.
In 2022, the NCAA rule was that transgender athletes had to be below 10 nanomoles per liter in order to be eligible, this allowed transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete at the 2022 NCAA Championships, where she finished 1st in the 500 freestyle (4:33.24), 5th in the 200 freestyle (1:43.40), and 8th in the 100 free (48.18).
USA Swimming has a different rule, requiring no greater amount of testosterone than 5 nanomoles per liter for a period of at least 36 months in order to be eligible.
With the update from today, the NCAA will no longer be allowing any transgender competitors in women’s categories at all.
You can read the full executive order from today here.
The executive order from January 20th defining the sexes can be read here.
Edit: 2/6 Update
The NCAA has released their new policy regarding transgender participation.
Athletes assigned male at birth (AMAB) will not be allowed to compete in the women’s category, but they will be permitted to practice with the women’s team on a “practice squad” that will not count against traditional roster limits. The NCAA is reportedly still developing the practice squad policies. These athletes will also continue to receive traditional benefits available to student-athletes, such as medical care.
Any athletes who were assigned female at birth (AFAB) and begin hormone therapy will no longer be allowed to compete on women’s teams, but they will be allowed to continue practicing with women’s teams while receiving the traditional benefits.
All athletes will be allowed to compete in the men’s category provided they meet the NCAA eligibility requirements. If they are taking a banned substance, like testosterone, they also must complete the medical exemption process.
Not a Trump fan but this just makes sense to me.
This is a physical / advantage policy-making issue. Not a political question, nor a moral question. Rely on the science and move on. If the science determines that those born as male will have a physical advantage over those born as female (or those born as female taking testosterone hormone therapy will have an advantage), then at least for now, the policy is fair.
There’s just no easy political way around this. Forget about how we feel politically about the current administration (I’m actually not a supporter). The fact remains that disadvantaging (if that’s word?) female athletes is simply not fair. Until the science comes up with a way to truly level the playing field to include those born male… Read more »
Interesting this executive order was signed (surrounded by young girls) by a convicted sexual abuser. Where is SafeSport when you need them. Oh yes, he’s also a convicted felon!
There are no males at conception.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK222286/
Never in the history of a universe has there been a “person” who “produces the small reproductive cell” AT conception because male features don’t start to develop until about 9 weeks. Congratulations, everyone is a woman now. This is what happens when your laws are made out of “cOmMoN SeNse” and Riley Gaines podcasting ambitions.
That was a glorious signing ceremony of scores and scores of smiling girls and enthusiastic young women huddled around the president at the Resolute desk as he signed this executive order. What a sight!
Yes he was in heaven! He’s a convicted sexual abuset!
The executive order is coming right before swimming NCAA championships.
I wonder how many athletes will be affected by this?
None at the D1 level. Unsure of D2. Maybe 1 or 2 at D3. Less than 10 out over 500K in the entire NCAA across all sports.
How often has the group stripping the rights of a marginalized group been on the right side of history?
There is no constitutional right to compete in the NCAA. One can support a person’s right to live their life as they chose and at the same time say no, in completive athletics it is completely appropriate to have clear guidelines that will exclude people that don’t meet the criteria
Well the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling said that racial segregation laws didn’t violate the constitution, as long as facilities for each race were equal in quality, which we know was never the case. There isn’t a constitutional right to have a credit card, either, and women weren’t allowed to have their own without a male co-signer until 1974 when the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed. This is limiting people’s rights to live their lives freely and fully.
I can guarantee that there is not one transwoman who decided to completely upend her life, open herself to the possibility of violence and death, face harassment and denigration from bigots, all because she wants to compete in athletics at the… Read more »
I want you to go watch the 500 free when Lia wins. Look at his dive, underwaters, and flip turns. His stroke and technique looking absolutely nothing like his female competitors.
Her dive, her stroke.
The competitors in the locker room that week would confirm the use of “his.”
They can make that choice, but with every choice we make we give up something else. When you get married, you give up being single. When you take your male body and choose to try to live as a woman, it’s not fair to be permitted into women’s sports. I’m all for trans people having their own competitions and records. Just not against women and girls. Isn’t it curious that we don’t see trans men making waves in men sports?!