Trump Officially Bans Trans Athletes from Women’s Sports
The president, making transphobic remarks, issued an executive order prohibiting trans athletes from competing on female sports teams.
President Donald Trump today signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from competing on women’s and girls’ sports teams.
Under the order, the U.S. Department of Education will inform schools that allowing transgender athletes to compete on sports teams that align with their gender identity violates Title IX, a federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational settings.
Schools that refuse to comply can potentially have their federal funding yanked by the Education Department.
The transgender athlete ban also seeks to use Trump’s bully pulpit to persuade sports associations governing non-scholastic sports to adopt similar rules.
The president’s order directs the State Department to review visas of foreign athletes entering the United States for competitions to ensure they were not assigned male at birth.
“In recent years, the radical left has waged an all-out campaign to erase the very concept of biological sex and replace it with a militant transgender ideology,” Trump, surrounded by school-age female athletes and their parents, said in vile, transphobic remarks at the signing ceremony. “You heard a little bit about this, haven’t you?… Men claiming to be girls have stolen more than 3,500 victories….
“We will not allow men to beat up, injure, and cheat our women and our girls,” Trump said. “From now on, women’s sports will be only for women.”
Trump also said Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem would be involved in vetting international athletes coming to the United States for athletic competitions, including the 2028 Olympics.
“I’m also directing our secretary of homeland security to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes,” Trump said. “Trying to get into the games, maybe….
“My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes. And it’s gonna end, and it’s ending right now, and nobody is gonna be able to do a damn thing about it, because when I speak, we speak with authority,” he added.
Trump recognized his supporters on this issue, including Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who has led a transphobic war in the Capitol primarily against Delaware Democrat Sarah McBride, the nation’s first transgender congressperson.
Earlier in the day, Mace used the slur “tranny” during a hearing, prompting Virginia’s Gerry Connolly, the Democratic Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight, to call for “decorum.”
“The gentlelady has used a phrase,” Connolly said, “that is considered a slur in the LGBTQ community and the transgender community.”
“Tranny, tranny, tranny,” Mace loudly barked back. “I don’t really care. You want penises in women’s bathrooms and I’m not gonna have it.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) crashes out at a hearing, repeating a slur: “Tranny, tranny, tranny. I don’t really care.”
After objection, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) says he will “look into whether that’s offensive.” pic.twitter.com/TbkbePs7E2
— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) February 5, 2025
Transgender participation in high school and college sports is rare. Charlie Baker, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, recently told members of the U.S. Senate that fewer than 10 transgender athletes are competing on sports teams aligning with their gender identity.
Still, conservatives have seized on the few instances where transgender athletes have enjoyed success to demand a transgender athlete ban.
In 27 states, there are now laws and regulations prohibiting transgender athletes in grades K-12 from competing on teams that align with their gender identity.
However, bans in Arizona, Utah, West Virginia, and Idaho have been blocked from being enforced by state or federal judges.
A federal judge in New Hampshire has carved out a temporary exemption allowing two transgender plaintiffs suing over that state’s ban to continue competing.
At the collegiate level, the NCAA has largely adopted a hands-off approach, allowing the governing bodies of individual sports to adopt policies regarding the eligibility of transgender athletes.
The NCAA requires transgender female athletes to have undergone at least one year of hormone therapy before competing in female-designated sports. The collegiate sporting association has not actively pushed for an across-the-board ban on transgender athletes, resulting in lawsuits challenging the lack of such a policy.
The transgender athlete ban aligns with another executive order by Trump asserting that there are only two sexes — male and female — and that the federal government will no longer recognize any person’s gender identity as valid.
“The actions we’re taking today are the latest in a sweeping effort to reclaim our culture and our laws from the radical left crusade against biological reality,” Trump said at the ceremony. “On day one, I made it official — and I’m making it official policy of the United States government that there is — a, you know, two genders, we have two genders. what might they be? Man and woman. Male and female. Male and female. Can’t think of too many others.”
Both executive orders place school districts, especially those in liberal cities, in a difficult situation.
On the one hand, they do not wish to risk losing federal funds by defying Trump’s orders. On the other, they want to assuage fears that transgender youth will be subjected to discrimination, including being misgendered and deadnamed, because of how they identify.
Genevra Walters, a former superintendent at Kankakee School District 111 in Illinois, who now consults with school districts, told the Washington Post that the willingness of districts to buck the Education Department’s directives would likely be connected to the relative wealth of a school district.
“If you’re in an extremely wealthy district, you’re in a very different position than a struggling district with a lot of poverty and not a lot of wealth,” Walters said. “A district that is not dependent on federal funding as much as another would have more flexibility in terms of community decisions around how they operate.”
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