The NCAA is complying in advance banning transgender women from playing on women's collegiate teams in response to Trump's executive order. That order also attempts to ban transgender athletes, like myself, from entering or re-entering the United States.
Throughout the presidential campaign, Trump offered up transgender athletes as red meat to bloodthirsty MAGAt knuckle draggers. While signing the order Trump proclaimed "The war on women's sports is over. My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes."
How many trans athletes are directly affected by this?
The president of the National Collegiate Athletics Association told a Senate panel in December he was aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes among the 530,000 competing at 1,100 member schools.
To Trump cruelty is the point.
In a statement on February 5, 2025, NCAA President Charlie Baker, a Republican, welcomed the executive order:
"The NCAA is an organization made up of 1,100 colleges and universities in all 50 states that collectively enroll more than 530,000 student-athletes. We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today's student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, President Trump's order provides a clear, national standard.
"The NCAA Board of Governors is reviewing the executive order and will take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the coming days, subject to further guidance from the administration. The Association will continue to help foster welcoming environments on campuses for all student-athletes. We stand ready to assist schools as they look for ways to support any student-athletes affected by changes in the policy," said Baker.
The next day on February 6 2024 the NCAA issued rules banning transgender women from collegiate sports without consulting with staff medical experts first Dr. Jack Turban posted on Bluesky announcing his resignation from the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports:
“Unfortunately, your recent decision to issue a blanket ban on trans female participation in women’s sports does not align with [medical] or scientific consensus,” Turban wrote in a letter to Baker. “I cannot in good conscience participate in this kind of politicization of science and medicine at the expense of some of our most vulnerable student-athletes.”
Dr Turban told The Hill that he and other committee members were not given advance notice of the board’s vote before the public announcement.
— Jack Turban MD (@turban.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Federal courts have generally ruled in favor of letting transgender girls compete, Reuters Reports. A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling blocked Idaho's ban, while the 9th Circuit and the 4th Circuit have also stopped bans from being enforced against specific plaintiffs in West Virginia and Arizona. A federal district court judge in New Hampshire has blocked, the state from enforcing its ban against two plaintiffs. The fourth Circuit of Appeals blocked a law passed by the West Virgina Legislature that banned a transgender high school student from playing on the girls team.
