President Trump has signed an executive order banning transgender women and girls from competing in women’s sports at federally funded schools and colleges. The move is part of his broader push to restrict transgender rights, following previous rollbacks on gender identity protections in education, healthcare, and federal agencies.
Surrounded by female athletes and students, Trump signed the order during a White House ceremony on National Girls and Women’s Sports Day, declaring, “With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over.”
Public support for restricting transgender participation in sports exceeds Trump’s own approval ratings, with a 2023 Gallup poll showing 7 in 10 Americans believe transgender athletes should compete only on teams matching their sex assigned at birth. About half of U.S. states have already passed laws limiting transgender athlete participation.
Trump cites Title IX as justification for the order, arguing that the law was intended to protect biological women’s opportunities in sports, not to include individuals who transition from male to female. While the executive order applies only to federally funded institutions, it signals a broader push to reshape gender-related policies in education.
The administration’s position also aligns with legislative efforts in Congress. In 2023, the House passed the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” which seeks to amend Title IX by codifying sex as strictly based on reproductive biology at birth and barring transgender women and girls from competing in female sports divisions. While Trump’s previous executive order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism,” already directed federal agencies to define gender as strictly male or female at birth, the new executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” reinforces this stance by applying Title IX restrictions to federally funded schools and threatening funding cuts for noncompliance.
A senior administration official defended the decision, stating, “If you’re going to have women’s sports, if you’re going to provide opportunities for women, then they have to be equally safe, equally fair, and equally private opportunities, and so that means that you’re going to preserve women’s sports for women.”
Although the bill has stalled in the Senate, the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order keeps the issue in the national spotlight and serves as a temporary enforcement mechanism while lawmakers push for a permanent change to federal law.
While supporters argue the order preserves fairness in women’s sports by preventing biological advantages, civil rights groups and LGBTQ+ advocates have vowed to challenge it in court. They argue that it contradicts the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), which determined that discrimination based on gender identity is a form of sex discrimination under federal law. Critics also point to existing policies from governing sports bodies, including the NCAA and International Olympic Committee, which allow transgender athletes to compete under specific hormone regulation guidelines.
With legal challenges looming and no clear legislative path forward in the Senate, the fate of Trump’s executive order remains uncertain. The broader battle over transgender participation in sports is now set to play out in courtrooms, state legislatures, and future administrations where the final outcome could have lasting implications for Title IX and gender rights.
SOURCES
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/05/nx-s1-5282137/trump-transgender-sports-executive-order
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-executive-order-banning-transgender-athletes-womens-sports
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/05/politics/transgender-athletes-trump-executive-action/index.html