On Feb 5, Donald Trump signed a new executive order on transgender athletes. This order bans transgender girls and women from competing in the girls’ and women’s division of sports.
In April, the New York City Department of Education rejected the Trump administration’s demands to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion, stating “New York will not comply with an order from President Donald Trump’s administration to certify that school districts are eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.”
Even under the threat of losing federal funding the NYC DOE stands firm with its DEI policy and continues to spread diversity and inclusion for all.
The Public School Athletic League’s closest rule related to transgender athletes states, “Once a student-athlete competes on a team organized for one gender during the school year, the student-athlete may not compete on a team organized for the other gender in the same sport or during the same season.”
The official DOE policy states on transgender students, “Transgender and gender expansive students must be given the same opportunities to participate in physical education as all other students.”
High school students and teachers have mentioned this being less of an issue, than it is for college athletes.
As for college athletes with this new executive order there is more complexity based on this issue than ever.
The NCAA as of February 6th, updated their policy following Donald Trump’s policy.
The NCAA website states, “The new policy limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only.” However transgender men can still participate, practice, and receive the benefits of practicing with women teams they cannot compete with.
The new updated policy is as follows: “Athletes assigned male at birth, a student assigned woman or girl at birth but undergoing hormone therapy may not compete in women’s competition but may receive the benefits and practice with the women’s team.”
The NCAA has also stated that if schools were to break these rules then they would be subjected to no longer competing in championship.
Only a couple hours after his inauguration. President Trump signed an executive order saying the federal government is not to use terms like gender identity and only recognizes “two sexes, male and female.”
In March, three universities were under investigation for violating the IX policy universities including San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts interscholastic athletic association. All of these schools are at risk of losing federal funding.
Current and former college athletes filled a lawsuit against the US district court in Georgia. Their claim was that the NCAA “serially violated Title IX in 2022 by purposefully adopting and amending policies.” Their claim was based on the UPenn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.
