‘Only NAIA student-athletes whose biological sex is female may participate in NAIA-sponsored female sports.’
A governing body for college athletics has announced a ban on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) said in an
April 8 announcement that its Council of Presidents approved the ban in a unanimous 20–0 vote.
“Only NAIA student-athletes whose biological sex is female may participate in NAIA-sponsored female sports,” the group said in the announcement.
Also, in order for female athletes to be allowed to participate in NAIA-sponsored women’s competitions, they may not have begun any masculizing hormone therapy.
Men’s competitions are open to athletes of both sexes, as are competitive cheer and competitive dance events, NAIA clarified in the announcement.
The prohibition also doesn’t apply to team activities like exhibition games and practices.
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The decision drew positive reactions from advocates of keeping female-identifying men from women’s sports.“NAIA becomes the first national college governing body to mandate athletes compete with their sex in an overwhelming” vote, collegiate swimmer and activist Riley Gaines said in a
post on X.
Ms. Gaines was among a group of 16 female athletes who recently filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) for allowing female-identifying male athletes to compete in women’s events.
The lawsuit, which was filed in mid-March at the U.S. District Court of Atlanta, alleges that NCAA violated
Title IX, a 1972 federal civil rights law that banned discrimination based on sex.
Ms. Gaines and the others alleged in their complaint that the NCAA imposed “a radical anti-woman agenda” on college sports, “reinterpreting Title IX to define women as a testosterone level, (and) permitting men to compete on women’s teams.”
The Biden administration
has proposed amending Title IX to prohibit barring transgender students from participating on teams and in events that are consistent with their “gender identity” rather than their biological sex.
The proposed regulation would allow for some exclusions, particularly in competitive high school and college athletic environments, in order to ensure fairness in competition or prevent sports-related injury.
In February, the Biden administration transmitted its
final proposed Title IX rule change to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which has until June 1, 2024, to review the draft rule before sending it back to the Department of Education for final review and publication.
NAIA president Jim Carr
told CBS Sports that he believes the organization’s decision to bar female-identifying male athletes from sports competitions aligns with the original intent of Title IX.
“For us, we believed our first responsibility was to create fairness and competition in the NAIA,” he told the outlet. “We also think it aligns with the reasons Title IX was created. You’re allowed to have separate but equal opportunities for women to compete.”
Backlash
The issue of female-identifying males competing in women’s sports has become a highly charged issue, debated in schools, corporate boardrooms, and legislative assemblies.A number of states and localities have adopted laws banning transgender-identifying athletes from participating in school sports, most frequently in K-12, with some of these laws facing legal challenges.
In a recent case, New York’s Nassau County announced a ban on female-identifying male players competing at county-run facilities in any league that doesn’t correspond to their biological sex or isn’t a coed or mixed league.
“There is a movement for biological males to bully their way into competing in sports or leagues or teams that identify themselves or advertise themselves as girls’ or female or women’s teams or leagues,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Brakeman said in a February
press conference announcing the move.
“We find that unacceptable,“ he continued, adding that female-identifying males pushing to compete in women’s sports is ”a form of bullying.”
While some transgender sports bans face legal challenges, an
overwhelming majority of Americans say that athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that conform with their “birth gender.”
World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport of athletics,
recently banned female-identifying males from competing in women’s events at international competitions.
While the transgender movement has surged into the cultural limelight, by
some accounts, the tide is turning on tolerance for transgender ideology in America.
For instance, the marketing partnership between Bud Light and transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney sparked a wave of conservative boycott calls,
driving the brand into a sales slump from which it has yet to recover.
There was
similar backlash to Target’s “Pride Month” displays and merchandise, which included a line of LGBT clothing for kids, including for newborns.
Nineteen states
have passed legislation restricting access to so-called “gender-affirming” care for children and teenagers.
