On Feb. 6, the NCAA announced that the organization’s Board of Governors voted to bar transgender women from competing on women’s teams by changing their participation policy for transgender student-athletes in compliance with an executive order by President Donald Trump. The order, signed on Feb. 5, prohibits transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
Vice President for Athletics Scott Leykam declined to comment on the possible implications the order could have for UP athletics and student-athletes, according to Assistant Athletics Director of Communications Kyle Garcia.
The new policy will apply to all student-athletes regardless of eligibility under the previous policy, according to NCAA President Charlie Baker in a press release.
"The NCAA is an organization made up of 1,100 colleges and universities in all 50 states that collectively enroll more than 530,000 student-athletes,” Baker said. “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.”
The executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” aims at prohibiting transgender athletes, specifically transgender women and girls, from competing in women’s sports by applying Title IX regulations that prohibit sex-based discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding.
The Biden administration previously revised Title IX regulations to prohibit discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, which a federal judge in Kentucky struck down last month.
The new order forbids students assigned male at birth from accessing those opportunities and directs the Department of Education to investigate and withdraw federal funding from schools that do not comply with the order.
Maggie Dapp is the Sports Editor at The Beacon. She can be reached at dapp26@up.edu.
Kimberly Cortez is the Editor-in-Chief of The Beacon. They can be reached at cortez25@up.edu.
