President Donald Trump last week took a major step to deliver on one of his top campaign promises: banning transgender athletes from participating in girls' or women’s sports.

The latest executive order, signed on National Girls and Women in Sports Day and titled "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports," outlines the president’s view that it will "protect opportunities for women and girls to compete in safe and fair sports” by asserting that it is "the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports." 

The February 5 order, which does not have the force of law, instructs the federal government to enforce the administration’s interpretation of "biological sex" across athletics competitions from K-12 sports and collegiate athletics to the Olympic Games. The order directly impacts K-12 school sports operations, with many districts already operating under state laws banning the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports while others are subject to more permissive policies. The order also immediately impacts higher education institutions as the NCAA moved quickly after Trump’s order to revise its policies on transgender athletes.

The executive order directs the Secretary of Education to "prioritize Title IX enforcement actions" against schools that permit transgender women athletes to participate on women’s teams or to access women’s locker rooms. The Department of Education is also instructed to issue or revise regulations and policy guidance "clearly specifying and clarifying that women’s sports are reserved for women." Colleges, universities, and K-12 districts that permit transgender women to play on girls' or women’s teams would risk federal funding under the order, should the president’s recommendation go into effect. 

For clarification, the February 5 executive order only seeks to prohibit transgender girls or women from participating on girls' or women’s sports team; it does not contain any restriction on transgender boys or men’s participation opportunities.

Impacts to Athletics Operations

For K-12 schools, transgender athlete policies are governed by state law and athletics association policy. Since the president’s order does not have the force of law, state legislatures and athletics governing bodies would need to change those laws and policies before wholesale participation shifts are required. While school districts in the 25 U.S. states that have already banned transgender athletes from playing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity (along with schools subject to similar bans issued by their athletics governing bodies, like the Georgia High School Association) will likely maintain their status quo, schools subject to more permissive participation guidelines may consider revising their policies to avoid the risk of enforcement actions or of losing federal funding. 

At the collegiate level, the NCCA moved quickly to change its own policies in the wake of Trump’s order — just as student-athletes are competing in winter and spring sports. In 2022, the NCAA updated its transgender student-athlete policy to require transgender athletes to undergo testosterone testing and meet sport-specific levels to compete in women's divisions in accordance with each sport’s national governing body or international federation. The new policy, effective immediately, limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only, but does permit student-athletes assigned male at birth to practice with women's teams and receive student-athlete benefits such as medical care. The policy applies to all student-athletes across all three NCAA divisions. This means that any transgender women who are current collegiate student-athletes are, effective immediately, no longer permitted to compete on the women's team.

Colleges and universities should immediately engage their coaching and compliance staff, sports supervisors, and other athletics administrators to comply with the NCAA policy change in order to maintain student-athlete eligibility. Higher education institutions should also heavily prioritize mental health support services for impacted student-athletes whose eligibility status has changed overnight.

Department of Education Enforcement Actions Announced

One day after the executive order’s signing, the Department of Education announced new, directed investigations into "apparent Title IX violations" at two individual higher education institutions and one K-12 athletics association, each of which have permitted transgender girls and women to compete in accordance with their gender identity. In that same announcement, the DOE revealed that the Office for Civil Rights will be "actively reviewing athletic participation policies at a number of schools to evaluate their alignment with Title IX protections for female athletes." Schools and athletics organizations wishing to avoid similar investigations must navigate potential conflicts between state law, conference or organizational policy, federal Title IX protections, and the new policy positions espoused by the president.

School administrators at the K-12 and higher education levels should expect a wave of legal challenges following this latest executive order. There are also a number of bills currently pending in Congress on the same topic, including one to amend Title IX itself to ban transgender women from competing on women’s teams. For now, the matter remains unsettled.

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