Trump Signs Order Barring Trans Females From Girls' & Women's Sports
At an exuberant ceremony in the White House, President Trump signed an executive order that bars natal males from girls' and women's sports. It applies to K-12 schools and universities.
President Donald Trump maintained his breakneck pace of executive-order signing on Wednesday, applying his zig-zag signature with one of his signature Sharpies to a new order that would deny federal funding to schools that permit transgender females to participate in girls’ and women’s sports.*
*(Please see the note at the end of the article for information about my copy policy when writing about transgender issues.)
“The war on women’s sports is over,” Mr. Trump said at an exuberant and boisterous ceremony in the White House.
This was, in fact, the opening salvo of a new phase of the ongoing legal and political war regarding this combustible issue over inclusion and fairness in sports.
“On day one, I made it official, and I’m making it official policy of United States that there are two genders,” Mr. Trump said. “What might they be? Men and women.”
The president characterized transgender women as “men” and said that they “beat up” and “injure” women in sports. To make his point, he included as a guest at the ceremony Payton McNabb—a woman who was seriously injured by a volleyball “kill shot” made by a transgender player.
With an eye toward presiding over the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Mr. Trump said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would seek to bar transgender women from competing in women’s categories at the Olympics by informing the International Olympic Committee “that America categorically rejects transgender lunacy.” Indeed, the text of his executive order calls on the committee to amend its standards to keep women’s sports restricted to biological females.
Mr. Trump further said that he had directed the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem “to deny any and all visa applications” by any natal males seeking to enter the nation to compete in women’s sports.
The new executive order, entitled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” applies to public K-12 schools and, according to Mr. Trump, to “almost all universities,” given how fundamental federal funding is to higher education. The order would leave no room for biological males who identify as female—i.e.: transgender girls and women—to participate in any school sports but those reserved for boys and men.
“In recent years, many educational institutions and athletic associations have allowed men to compete in women’s sports,” the executive order states in its opening passage. “This is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”
The order, which also applies to locker rooms, states that “it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
Just as Mr. Trump has with his executive order promising to withhold funds from hospitals that provide gender-transition treatments to minors, the president has thrown schools and universities into the middle legal tug of war. Democratic state attorneys general, including Letitia James of New York, have asserted that hospitals that withhold such treatments in observation of the president’s order will only be violating their state’s anti-discrimination laws. Similar tensions will inevitably arise in the wake of the sports-related order.
The order is certain to be challenged in court by the ACLU and other liberal legal organizations such as Lambda Legal. The ACLU held a spirited town hall on Tuesday viewed live by over 10,000 people in which they rallied their supporters as they sought to form the backbone of the legal resistance to the second Trump administration. The ACLU has already filed a half-dozen lawsuits against the administration and are gearing up for many more.
In a statement, the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD criticized Trump’s executive order, saying: “This administration’s latest inaccurate and incoherent piece of paper smears an entire group of Americans but does not change the law or the facts. All women and girls, including transgender women and girls, should be welcome to play sports if they want, make decisions about their own bodies, be hired for jobs they are qualified for, and be free from lawless attacks by elected officials. Anti-LGBTQ politicians with a record of abusing and silencing women and stripping their health care have zero credibility in any conversation about protecting women and girls.”
At the heart of the battle over whether trans females should be included in girls and women’s sports is the question of whether Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 defines sex according to natal sex at birth, or whether it observes a more expansive definition—one that the Biden administration sought to instill—that includes gender identity as well.
The judicial branch will invariably be compelled to answer the question that the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, an influential force in conservative activism and politics, posed in a satirical 2022 documentary:
“What is a woman?”
In apparently high spirits, Mr. Trump was flanked at the signing ceremony Wednesday afternoon by a coterie of girls and young women, as well as activists who have campaigned to keep transgender females out of single-sex sports and spaces for girls and women.
Also on hand was a bustling crowd of Republican members of Congress, governors and attorneys general. The presence of so many high-profile politicians telegraphed that Republicans see restricting sports according to biological sex as a winning issue—one that puts Democrats on the back foot, especially when the matter is framed as a matter of defending women and girls.
During a protracted name-checking ceremony, Mr. Trump prompted the most enthusiastic applause of all for Riley Gaines, who tied for fifth place with Lia Thomas, who is transgender, in the 200 freestyle final at the NCAA Women’s Championships in March 2022. Ms. Gaines was ultimately compelled to give up her spot on the podium in favor of Ms. Thomas, much to her chagrin. Considerably media-savvy, Ms. Gaines has since become the most prominent female athlete to campaign against the inclusion of transgender females in girls’ and women’s sports.
Referencing House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was at the signing ceremony, Mr. Trump said: “He’s a man of common sense” where matters regarding the politics surrounding transgender people are concerned. He noted that Mr. Johnson has “the easiest job” in politics, suggesting that all the speaker has to do is follow the president’s lead. Mr. Trump characterized the Republican members of Congress as neatly falling in line with his political priorities—as they have indeed over the first 16 days of his second administration.
The president also received a resounding applause when he noted that he has “effectively banned” through an executive order last week what he characterized as the “chemical castration and mutilation of minors.” This was a reference to prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and providing gender-transition surgeries to people under age 19.
“Who would think we even have to say that? ‘Last week I banned…’” Mr. Trump mused.
“We are restoring sanity and common sense, very simply, to our government,” he said.
In a jocular mood, he flirted with the many athletic young women present at the signing. “I’m not allowed to say this politically, it could end my career: They’re really beautiful.”
“We’ve gotten the woke lunacy out of our military and now we’re very importantly getting it out of women's sports,” Trump said, back on topic. He said the left has inculcated a “militant transgender ideology” in society.
Mr. Trump said that his “landslide” victory (he did not achieve one; the vote was, in fact, historically close) was due to these issues. This was an apparent reference to the massive investment by Republicans in campaign ads attacking Harris over her support of gender-transition treatments and surgeries.
The new executive order states: “Many sport-specific governing bodies have no official position or requirements regarding trans-identifying athletes. Others allow men to compete in women’s categories if these men reduce the testosterone in their bodies below certain levels or provide documentation of ‘sincerely held’ gender identity. These policies are unfair to female athletes and do not protect female safety.”
Science backs up this claim of a lack of fairness, although more research is needed. A recent review paper by Dr. Michael Joyner, an expert in exercise science at the Mayo Clinic, found that boys have an advantage over girls in sports even prior to puberty. This advantage magnifies dramatically after puberty. He further found that sustained treatment with cross-sex hormones does not fully eliminate this typical advantage.
The executive order further asserts:
(a) The Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy shall, within 60 days of the date of this order:
(i) convene representatives of major athletic organizations and governing bodies, and female athletes harmed by such policies, to promote policies that are fair and safe, in the best interests of female athletes, and consistent with the requirements of Title IX, as applicable; and
(ii) convene State Attorneys General to identify best practices in defining and enforcing equal opportunities for women to participate in sports and educate them about stories of women and girls who have been harmed by male participation in women’s sports
Recent polling by The New York Times suggests that the majority of Americans, including two thirds of Democrats, agree that women’s sports should not permit inclusion by natal males who identify as female.
Following Mr. Trump’s victory in November, two Democratic members of Congress, Rep. Seth Moulton (Massachusetts) and Rep. Tom Suozzi (New York) each made a stir by arguing that Democrats had gone too far in supporting the inclusion of natal males in girls’ sports.
In December, the Biden administration withdrew a proposed rule change to Title IX that would have permitted players to participate in sports according to their gender identity. The purpose of the withdrawal was apparently to make it more difficult for Mr. Trump to revert the rule to defining sex according only to biological sex. If a rule is still pending, it is easier to change under federal law. Mr. Trump, who has observed little regard for the law as he has deputized billionaire businessman Elon Musk to decimate various divisions of the federal government, now must start the lengthy rule-making process from scratch.
During the signing ceremony, Mr. Trump praised Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina), who sought successfully to bar Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Delaware), who in January became the nation’s first openly transgender member of Congress, from using the ladies’ room in federal buildings. The ban, which Mr. Johnson ultimately supported, restricts all such facilities according to biological sex rather than permitting those who identify as female to enter women’s facilities. Ms. McBride has said she will comply with the rule.
Upon name checking Rep. Ronnie Jackson (R-Texas), who was the president’s personal physician during his first term, Mr. Trump recalled that Dr. Jackson was once asked, “‘Who’s the healthiest of the three?’” out of him, Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
Mr. Trump continued: “He said, ‘It’s not close, it’s Donald Trump. And from that moment, I love this guy.”
* A note about my copy policy: As with pretty much all reporters who write for the mainstream media, I refer to natal males who identify as female as “transgender females” or “trans women.”
Similarly, I use trans people’s preferred pronouns, referring to someone such as Lia Thomas, who is a transgender woman, as “she”.
I do not refer to transgender women as “trans-identified men,” as many people try to pressure me to do.
Please do not put complaints in the comments about my copy policies; I will just have to remove them.
These copy policies of mine are non-negotiable.
Thanks very much for reading.
—Ben
I am an independent journalist, specializing in science and health care coverage. I contribute to The New York Times, The Guardian, NBC News and The New York Sun. I have also written for theWashington Post, The Atlantic and The Nation. Follow me on Twitter: @benryanwriter and Bluesky: @benryanwriter.bsky.social. Visit my website: benryan.net
What a shame that such a common sense policy has been politicized.
The Democrats totally blew this one.
In summary. Testosterone matters. Follow the science, Democrats. You lost because of this lunacy. And you deserved to lose. Idiots.