President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order on Wednesday aimed at barring individuals who were assigned male at birth from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
The order, expected to be signed during an afternoon ceremony, marks a significant policy shift in how Trump’s second administration addresses transgender rights and gender identity at the federal level.
Last month, on his first day back in office, Trump issued a sweeping directive mandating that sex be recognized strictly as male or female in official government documents, including passports and federal prison policies.
Throughout his campaign, Trump’s promise to “keep men out of women’s sports” resonated with many voters, including some outside the traditional Republican base. An AP VoteCast survey found that more than half of voters believed support for transgender rights in government and society had gone too far.
As part of his broader effort to reshape gender policies, Wednesday’s executive order will reinterpret Title IX—the landmark legislation promoting gender equity in sports and preventing sexual harassment on campuses. The timing of the order aligns with National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
“This executive order restores fairness, upholds Title IX’s original purpose, and protects the rights of female athletes who have dedicated their lives to competing at the highest levels,” said U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina.
Title IX interpretations have shifted significantly between administrations. During Trump’s first term, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos introduced a 2020 policy narrowing the definition of sexual harassment and limiting the scope of Title IX investigations. The Biden administration reversed those changes in April 2023, expanding protections for LGBTQ+ students and strengthening safeguards for survivors of campus sexual assault. However, Biden’s policy did not explicitly address transgender athletes, leaving the matter open to legal challenges from Republican-led states.
Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School, noted that Trump’s new approach could be framed as a return to traditional interpretations of the law.
The actual number of transgender athletes affected by the policy remains uncertain. In 2021, the Associated Press found that many states pushing for bans on transgender participation in sports struggled to cite specific cases where it had posed an issue. For example, in 2022, when Utah lawmakers overrode a veto on a bill restricting transgender athletes, only one transgender girl in the state’s K-12 sports system was affected.
“This is a solution looking for a problem,” said Cheryl Cooky, a Purdue University professor specializing in gender, sports, media, and culture, after Trump’s election.
Despite the small number of cases, instances of transgender athletes competing—such as Lia Thomas in collegiate swimming or San Jose State’s volleyball team—have generated intense national debate, underscoring the political and cultural weight of the issue.
SOURCE: AP
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