US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban transgender women from competing in sports during a ceremony in the White House’s East Room on Wednesday, February 5.
As he signed the order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”, the President was surrounded by women and young girls in sports outfits. After this, President Trump declared, “With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over.”
The order has two main parts. First, it enforces Title IX, a law that bans sex-based discrimination in schools and programs receiving federal money. Second, it involves the federal government working with private businesses.
Before the President signed this order, a White House official said the newly introduced executive order would take the opposite position on Title IX from the Biden administration.
The previous administration had established a rule that schools violate Title IX when they ban transgender students from participating in sports.
The current administration’s position on Title IX is, “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.”
In addition to the official position regarding Title IX, the White House official said the administration will consider additional guidance in regulations and interpretations of the law. He also revealed the administration will investigate schools that are not in compliance through the Department of Education. He also warned, “Schools not in compliance are putting their federal funding in jeopardy vis a vis the US government.”
LGBT rights organization Human Rights Campaign (HRC) criticized the move the day before. “The facts on the ground demonstrate that policies like these are not meant to solve any pressing problem, but are simply tools to politicize children for political gain,” the group said in the press release.
The Trump administration is set to meet sports organizations to discuss transgender women in sports
President Trump is expected to host women’s sports organizations at the White House to “listen to the stories of female athletes and their parents.” The President also expects the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) to no longer allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
The US President does not have legal authority over the Olympic Committee or the NCAA. The White House warns, however, that the executive order “starts a very public pressure campaign on these organizations.”
Following the signing, President Trump said he ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make clear to the International Olympic Committees … that America categorically rejects transgender lunacy.”
Trump’s Campaign
Trump’s campaign spent $19 million on ads in so-called “battleground states” on the subject. NCAA President Charlie Barker estimates there are only 10 transgender athletes out of 510,000 across all sports in the association’s three divisions. The US President also wants to eliminate the Department of Education, which enforces Title IX.
In the previously-mention press release, the HRC said, “Blanket bans on sports participation also come over the objections of advocates for women’s sports like Billie Jean King, Megan Rapinoe, Dawn Staley, the Women’s Sports Foundation, and the National Women’s Law Center.
