U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday designed to prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from participating in women’s or girls’ sporting events.
The order marks another aggressive shift by the Republican president’s second administration in the way that the federal government deals with transgender people and their rights.
The president put out a sweeping order on his first day in office last month that called for the federal government to define sex as only male or female, and for that to be reflected on official documents, such as passports and in policies such as federal prison assignments.
Trump found during the campaign that his pledge to “keep men out of women’s sports” resonated beyond the usual party lines. More than half the voters surveyed by AP VoteCast said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far.
He leaned into the rhetoric before the election, pledging to get rid of the “transgender insanity,” though his campaign offered little in the way of details.
Transgender people in the U.S. say they’re worried about what’s to come after President Donald Trump signed an executive order saying his government only recognizes two sexes that are assigned at birth.
Wednesday’s order — which coincides with National Girls and Women in Sports Day — involves how his administration will interpret Title IX, the law best known for its role in pursuing gender equity in athletics and preventing sexual harassment on campuses.
“This executive order restores fairness, upholds Title IX’s original intent, and defends the rights of female athletes who have worked their whole lives to compete at the highest levels,” said U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina.
Wednesday’s executive order will also direct the Department of Homeland Security to review visa applications of transgender women to make sure they align with their sex assigned at birth when they enter the U.S. to compete in women’s sports.
“If you are coming into the country and you are claiming that you are a woman, but you are a male here to compete against these women, we’re going to be reviewing that for fraud,” a White House official told Reuters.
‘A solution looking for a problem’
Every administration has the authority to issue its own interpretations of the landmark legislation. The last two presidential administrations — including Trump’s first — offer a glimpse at the push-pull involved.
Betsy DeVos, the education secretary during Trump’s first term, issued a Title IX policy in 2020 that narrowed the definition of sexual harassment and required colleges to investigate claims only if they’re reported to certain officials.
The Biden administration rolled back that policy last April with one of its own that stipulated the rights of 2SLGBTQ+ students would be protected by federal law and provided new safeguards for victims of campus sexual assault. The policy stopped short of explicitly addressing transgender athletes. Still, more than a half-dozen Republican-led states immediately challenged the new rule in court.
“All Trump has to say is, ‘We are going to read the regulation traditionally,'” said Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School.
How this order could affect the transgender athlete population — a number that is incredibly difficult to pin down — is uncertain.
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced his intention to roll back transgender rights and diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Queer rights lawyer barbara findlay, a member of the group Lawyers Against Transphobia, explains what the impact might be in Canada.
The Associated Press reported in 2021 that in many cases, the states introducing a ban on transgender athletes could not cite instances where their participation was an issue. When Utah state legislators overrode a veto by Gov. Spencer Cox in 2022, the state had only one transgender girl playing in K-12 sports who would be affected by the ban. It did not regulate participation for transgender boys.
“This is a solution looking for a problem,” Cheryl Cooky, a professor at Purdue University who studies the intersection of gender, sports, media and culture, told the AP after Trump was elected.
Yet the actual number of transgender athletes seems to be almost immaterial. Any case of a transgender female athlete competing — or even believed to be competing — draws outsized attention, from Lia Thomas swimming for the University of Pennsylvania to the recently completed season of the San Jose State volleyball team.
