United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to prohibit transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
Under the order signed on Wednesday, federal government funding will be revoked from educational institutes that permit trans girls and women to compete in female sports and utilize female locker rooms.
The order also instructs government agencies to promote sex-based female sports classifications at international organisations and gather representatives of major athletic organisations and governing bodies to promote “policies that are equitable and secure, in the best interests of female athletes.”
“We are alerting every school receiving taxpayer dollars: If you let men dominate women’s sports teams or intrude in your locker rooms, you will be scrutinized for violations of Title IX and jeopardize your federal funding,” Trump said, referring to a 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.
Declaring an end to “the assault on women’s sport,” Trump said his administration would not “stand by and witness men defeat and harm female athletes.”
“We’re just not going to allow it, and it’s going to stop, and it’s stopping immediately and nobody is going to be able to do a single thing about it because when I speak, we speak with authority.”
Trump also said he would urge the International Olympic Committee, which has left the issue of trans people’s participation in sport to international governing bodies, to officially endorse sex-based participation before the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“We want them to revise everything related to the Olympics and this completely absurd issue,” the US president said.
Trans women’s participation in sport has been a focal point in the US culture wars in recent years, though the number of athletes involved is minimal.
National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) president, Charlie Baker, told a US Senate panel in December that he knew of fewer than 10 trans people competing among the 520,000 athletes at colleges nationwide.
Opinion polls have suggested increasing public opposition to trans women competing amid high-profile controversies involving athletes such as college swimmer Lia Thomas, who won the NCAA Division I national championship in 2022 before being prohibited from women’s events by World Aquatics.
In a 2023 Gallup poll, 69 percent of Americans said trans athletes should only be permitted to compete against people of the same sex, a seven-point increase compared with 2021.
Baker, NCAA president, praised Trump’s order for setting a “clear, national standard.”
“We strongly believe that consistent and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a mishmash of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” Baker said in a statement.
“The NCAA Board of Governors is examining the executive order and will take necessary steps to adjust NCAA policy in the coming days, subject to further direction from the administration,” he added.
Athlete Ally, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said it was disheartened that trans youth would “no longer be able to experience the happiness of playing sports as their true and genuine selves.”
“We’ve known this day was likely to happen for a long time, as this administration continues to pursue simple solutions to complex issues, often resulting in hostility towards the most vulnerable communities in our country,” the group said in a statement.
“Despite this executive order, we will continue to choose love, acceptance, and open-mindedness with anyone willing to create a future of sports where everyone belongs. We will continue to collaborate with sporting bodies to broaden access to the life-enhancing power of sports whenever and wherever possible.”
GLAAD, one of the biggest LGBTQ rights organisations in the US, also denounced Trump’s order, calling it “misleading and incoherent.”
“All women and girls, including transgender women and girls, should be allowed to play sports if they desire, make decisions about their own bodies, be employed for jobs they are qualified for, and be protected from unjust attacks by extremists in elected office,” the group said in a statement.
“Anti-LGBTQ politicians with a history of oppressing and silencing women and removing their health care have zero trustworthiness in any conversation about safeguarding women and girls.”
Trump has signed four executive orders targeting trans people since his January 20 inauguration.
After ordering the US government to only acknowledge two sexes hours after being sworn into office, Trump signed orders to prohibit trans people from serving openly in the military and eliminate funding for gender transitions for people under age 19.
