Trump’s order aims to ‘protect opportunities for women and girls to compete in safe and fair sports.’
President Donald Trump followed through on his campaign promise to pursue biologically driven delineations in competitive sports. He signed an executive order calling for an end to allowing males in female sports.
According to Trump, he signed the Feb. 5 order, which the White House titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” to “protect opportunities for women and girls to compete in safe and fair sports.”
The order came several weeks after a separate order signed on Inauguration Day titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
Both orders govern policy surrounding individuals who identify as different from their biological sex.
The sports-related order is part of an effort to uphold Title IX rules, which were put in place in 1972 to separate women’s sports and create meaningful competition for women and girls.
Trump’s order will end “dangerous and unfair” competitions where males compete in female school and amateur sports, according to the White House.
“All of that ends today because with this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said while signing the order surrounded by dozens of young female athletes. “From now, women’s sports will be only for women.”
The order overturned the President Joe Biden’s day-one executive order that allowed men to participate in women’s programs.
“Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love,” Biden’s executive order reads.
“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”
Biden’s order equated biological sex and gender identity, citing the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would govern the topic.
The 1964 Act protects employees from discrimination on the grounds of sexuality or gender identity.
The decision had the legal effect of re-defining women’s sports as co-ed programs, something a White House official called a “slap in the face to the countless female athletes who dedicate tremendous effort to be the best in their sport, only to be forced to compete against biological men.”
Fairness and Safety Concerns
Trump’s order focused heavily on fairness and safety for female athletes. The order cited the inclusion of male-born participants in traditional women’s events as “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous.”
The order states that it takes away the opportunity for female-born athletes to participate and be recognized for their efforts.
In one instance, the order asserted that a lack of adherence to biologically divided sports resulted in “the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”
According to Trump’s order, this is a violation of Title IX or the Education Amendments Act of 1972. That act states that any educational institution receiving federal funding must give women equal opportunity in sports.
The order cited several court cases, including the recent Tennessee v. Cardona decided by the Supreme Court last month, which rejected the Biden administration-supported redefinition of “sex” to mean “gender identity” in Title IX.
With that, and the existing Title IX protections at his back, Trump ordered that the federal government rescind all funding from programs that deprive women and girls of “fair athletic opportunities.”
The order went on to say that the United States would “oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
Upcoming Actions
The Department of Education (DOE) was ordered to coordinate with the Office of the Attorney General to “compel” schools to adhere to the new standards.
The change includes an order to protect not only all-female sports but also all-female locker rooms, something that has been of deep concern in recent years.
Additionally, the DOE has been tasked with offering educational institutions guidance on how to implement the “equal athletic opportunity for members of both sexes” required under Title IX, as well as prioritizing the enforcement of the law.
Trump’s order directs the assistant to the president for domestic policy to develop guidelines aligned with Title IX, with the help of athletic organizations and governing bodies and female athletes who have been harmed by previous policies.
State attorneys general are also required to participate in the process of creating and enforcing best practices that maintain equal opportunities.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also withdraw U.S. support from international programs that don’t adhere to the protection of female athletes.
Any program that bases participation on identity rather than biology would fall into that category.
Trump also ordered the secretary of state to advocate for gender-divided competitions globally and with the United Nations.
Olympic Push
As part of Trump’s executive order, Rubio is ordered to use “all appropriate and available measures” to push the International Olympic Committee to amend its events to “promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes.”
The order states that this will be done by ensuring that participation in women’s events is decided by biological sex, not gender identity or testosterone reduction.
The day after Trump’s executive order was signed, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Board of Governors voted to ban male students from women’s sports.
“The new policy limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only,” the NCAA said in a statement announcing their policy change.
“This policy is effective immediately and applies to all student-athletes regardless of previous eligibility reviews under the NCAA’s prior transgender participation policy.”
The NCAA press release acknowledged the executive order, with NCAA President Charlie Baker saying the policy change was an effort to reinforce “clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions.”
Travis Gillmore contributed to this report.