President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday barring transgender girls and women from participating on sports teams that align with their gender identity, a move that has drawn condemnation from LGBTQ+ advocates and praise from conservatives.
“With my action this afternoon, we are putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice that if you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding,” Trump said during a Wednesday signing ceremony. Referring to K-12 schools and colleges, he said, “There will be no federal funding.”
The order says the federal government will rescind all funds from educational programs that don’t comply. It directs the U.S. secretary of education to prioritize Title IX enforcement actions against colleges and K-12 schools where women are required “to compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males.”
Trump’s pick for education secretary, Linda McMahon, is still awaiting her confirmation hearings.
According to a fact sheet on the order, it directs the U.S. Department of Justice to abide by a recent court order that struck down the Biden administration’s Title IX regulations, which had sought to codify LGBTQ+ student protections by prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Following the court decision, the U.S. Department of Education on Jan. 31 said it would enforce Title IX — the civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational institutions — through regulations finalized in 2020 under the first Trump administration.
And the executive order directs private sporting bodies to convene at the White House to hear “stories of female athletes who suffer life-long injuries, who have been silenced and forced to shower with men, and whose hard work has been cast aside due to the biological advantage of males,” the fact sheet said.
Since taking office Jan. 20, Trump has signed several executive orders aimed at transgender people. They include a Day 1 order declaring that the federal government would only recognize two sexes, male and female, based on an individual’s reproductive cells.
The Education Department has since said it will remove the option of “nonbinary” from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. It also said it would enforce Title IX consistent with the Jan. 20 order.
Trump’s executive order attempts to make good on his campaign promise to “keep men out of women’s sports.” The phrase has become a rallying cry for conservatives who wish to restrict transgender women and girls’ participation in college and K-12 athletics.
Transgender students account for only an extremely small sliver of students who play sports.
In December, NCAA President Charlie Baker told lawmakers that he was aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes competing in college sports.
At the K-12 level, roughly 1.4% of children ages 13 to 17 are transgender, according to an analysis of late 2010s data from The Williams Institute, a policy research center. And only about 1 in 8 transgender boys and girls — compared with around two-thirds of all youth — played on sports teams in 2017, according to a survey from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and University of Connecticut researchers.
Many conservative-led states have passed laws in recent years limiting transgender students’ participation in sports at both the college and K-12 level. They include both Alabama and Texas, where statutes bar public colleges from allowing trangender students to play on teams that correspond with their gender identities.
At the federal level, House lawmakers recently passed a bill largely along party lines that would prohibit transgender women from playing on women’s sports teams. The measure has not yet been put to a vote in the Senate.
Conservative lawmakers heralded Wednesday's executive order.
“Finally, we have a president that recognizes the importance of safeguarding opportunities for female athletes to compete safely and fairly,” Rep. Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Committee on Education and Workforce, said in a statement. “Today’s executive order ensures that women and girls won’t be pushed to the sidelines in their own sports.”
Ahead of Wednesday's signing ceremony, Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, likewise praised the forthcoming executive order.
“Women’s sports exist for a reason — because biological differences matter,” Mace said on Tuesday. “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.”
But in a statement Tuesday, Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said the executive order would deprive children of the opportunity to play sports along with their peers and could expose them to discrimination.
“Participating in sports is about learning the values of teamwork, dedication, and perseverance. And for so many students, sports are about finding somewhere to belong. We should want that for all kids — not partisan policies that make life harder for them,” Robinson said.
Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House education committee, also opposed the order, describing it as government overreach.
“Rather than address the real, urgent issues that students and families are facing every day, this Administration continues to target vulnerable students — specifically transgender girls and women — with a shameless attempt to bully them and force states, institutions, and sports organizations to follow a federal mandate that lacks clarity and understanding,” Scott said in a Wednesday statement.
