WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday barring transgender girls and women from participating in female sports, with supporters hailing it as a step toward fairness and critics condemning it as an attack on the rights of a marginalised group.
The order directs the Department of Justice to ban transgender girls and women from participating in female school sports under Trump’s interpretation of Title IX, a law against sex discrimination in education.
“The war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at a signing ceremony with dozens of women and girls aligned behind him.
“My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.”
The order, which is likely to face legal challenges, calls for “immediate enforcement” nationwide. It threatens to cut off federal funding for any school that allows transgender women or girls to compete in female-designated sporting competitions.
The order would affect only a small number of athletes. 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 520,000 competing at 1,100 member schools.
But the issue has connected with voters, who responded with enthusiastic applause when Trump mentioned bans on transgender athletes at his campaign rallies. He repeatedly aired television advertisements that criticised allowing transgender women and girls to compete in female sports.
Polls have found a majority of Americans oppose transgender athletes competing in sports that align with their gender identity.
Other transgender rights curbs
The order follows a series of other Trump executive orders restricting transgender rights, including one attempting to halt all federal support for healthcare that aids in gender transition for people under 19 and another that bans transgender people from serving in the military. Those orders have faced immediate legal challenges.
On his first day in office on 20 January, Trump signed an order demanding government employees refer only to “sex” and not “gender,” and declaring sex to be an “immutable biological reality” that precludes any change in gender identity.
The debate over transgender inclusion in sports has often centred on fairness, with opponents saying that people who have gone through male puberty have physical advantages. Transgender activists say there is little evidence to show that transgender women have an unfair advantage.
The order reverses the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX that it protects transgender people from discrimination on the basis of sex, which was blocked by a federal judge in 2024.
More than 20 states have passed laws that ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports, some of which have faced legal challenges.
The NCAA requires transgender women athletes to meet testosterone limits on a sport-by-sport basis, but does not track transgender participation in school sports.
Kelley Robinson, president of the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said Trump’s actions would expose children to harassment and discrimination. “For so many students, sports are about finding somewhere to belong. We should want that for all kids – not partisan policies that make life harder for them,” Robinson said in a statement.
Wednesday’s executive order will direct the Department of Homeland Security to review visa applications of transgender women to make sure they align with their sex assigned at birth when they enter the United States to compete in women’s sports.
“If you are coming into the country and you are claiming that you are a woman, but you are a male here to compete against these women, we’re going to be reviewing that for fraud,” the White House official said.
It will also instruct the State Department to “demand changes” within the International Olympic Committee to prevent transgender athletes from competing. The United States will use “all of our authority and our ability” to enforce the order in Olympic events on US soil, the official said. The Summer 2028 Olympics are due to be held in Los Angeles.
