Rebekah Bruesehoff, a transgender student athlete, speaks at a press conference on LGBTQI+ rights, at the U.S. Capitol on March 8, 2023, in Washington, DC. Photo by Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
On the national day recognizing women’s athletic achievements, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women and girls across the country from joining sports teams that reflect who they are. The order could potentially affect a challenge against a similar ban in Arizona.
What’s going on?
In an order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”, Trump redefined Title IX as banning transgender women and girls from participating in public school sports on teams consistent with their gender identity.
The law, which prohibits sex discrimination in public schools, was interpreted under the Biden administration as protecting transgender students from discrimination based on their gender identity. But Trump’s order will reverse that, and schools found to be violating Title IX risk forfeiting federal funds. Shortly before signing the order Wednesday afternoon, Trump touted it as a defense of female athletes.
“It’s 2025 and my administration will not watch men beat and batter female athletes,” he said.
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Critics of inclusive sports policies often claim that biological women face not only professional defeats but also physical danger if they’re allowed to compete alongside transgender women. But such shock-value statements are intended to exaggerate the prevalence of transgender athletes, and they ignore the reality that trans women make up an extreme minority of the U.S. population. Trans women who participate in competitive sports are even more rare. Less than 1% of U.S. adults identify as transgender, while only about 1.4% of U.S. teenagers between 13 and 17 identify as transgender. And despite transgender women being accused of having an unfair biological advantage, no direct or consistent research exists to prove that.
Moreover, the majority of the laws that forbid transgender people from participating in sports target minors, and studies have found that no significant difference exists between trans girls and cisgender girls before puberty. That similarity continues after the age of puberty, when trans girls typically begin hormone therapy after being on puberty blockers.
How the Grand Canyon State fits in
In Arizona, the “Save Women’s Sports Act”, was signed into law in 2022 by Gov. Doug Ducey. It remains in place and currently bans transgender girls in schools across the state from joining sports teams that match their gender identity. Opponents of the law argued it was a solution without a problem: the Arizona Interscholastic Association, which oversees 280 schools and roughly 170,000 student athletes, testified that it had received only 16 requests to participate from trans students between 2017 and 2022. A spokesperson told the Arizona Mirror that only about half of those appeals were from trans girls.
A year later, two trans teens sued the Department of Education for enforcing it, arguing that preventing them from participating freely in their schools’ athletic programs violated their constitutional rights. The courts have since allowed the girls to join sports teams that reflect who they are while litigation continues, but the case has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is currently made up of a conservative supermajority.
The lawsuit against the state’s trans sports ban saw Arizona’s Democratic elected officials and Republican legislative leaders butt heads. Kris Mayes, a Democrat and openly gay woman, refused to back the law in court despite being the state’s legal representative. Mayes reportedly informed Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne she was “disqualified” from defending the law in court. In response, Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma mounted a defense. Both lawmakers voted for the law in 2022. Petersen, who co-sponsored the law, was at the White House on Wednesday to attend the signing of Trump’s executive order, which LGBTQ advocates across the country have lambasted as the administration’s latest attack on trans people.
“The war against women and girls is now taking a dramatic turn for the better, and today sanity is being reinstated,” Petersen said, in a video response praising Trump’s action.
A provision in the order directs Mayes and the other 49 attorneys general to convene within two months to “identify best practices in defining and enforcing” the order’s mandates. Richie Taylor, a spokesman for Mayes, declined to comment on the order itself, saying the AG’s office has not yet been able to review the order. But he did note that Mayes supports equal access to school sports programs.
“Attorney General Mayes believes that sports should be available to all students,” Taylor said. “If Donald Trump was serious about protecting students he wouldn’t be attempting to eliminate the Department of Education.”
What’s the future look like?
Some advocates had hoped the lawsuit against Arizona’s trans athlete ban could lead to its nullification. But that appears less likely if the U.S. Supreme Court, which has recently been unafraid to issue rulings based on ideological grounds, decides to take up the case.
And it remains unclear whether Trump’s executive order could overshadow any success leveling the discriminatory law at the state level. Legal experts have questioned the validity of the order, pointing out that making such sweeping changes to how Title IX is enforced would require Congress to approve amendments or the Department of Education to revise its regulations. A bid by House Republicans to accomplish just that is awaiting consideration in the U.S. Senate, but to make it to Trump’s desk the proposal needs to capture the votes of at least seven Democrats to overcome the filibuster. While in the past that would have been virtually impossible, some Democrats have recently expressed support for regulating trans participation in women’s sports, and the party has increasingly backed conservatives on more controversial policies, like when Democrats crossed party lines to pass an anti-immigrant bill increasing the penalties for immigrants accused of low-level crimes last month.
It’s also too early to rule out a lawsuit challenging Trump’s order. Similar orders have been taken to court by national LGBTQ advocacy organizations. Tying up Trump’s directives in legal arguments delays their enforcement, and could result in voiding them.
Rachel Berg, a civil rights attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights who is involved in the lawsuit against Arizona’s trans athlete ban, would not say whether the organization plans to challenge Trump’s order, but did say others like it have been struck down by the courts. The Center, along with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, filed a federal lawsuit last week against Trump’s order barring transgender Americans from serving and enlisting in the military.
“The law bans all transgender girls from playing sports regardless of their individual circumstances,” Berg said, about Trump’s newest order. “This is harmful to all because it requires young girls to answer invasive personal questions or even undergo physical inspections by strangers if they want to play sports. Laws similar to this one have been held to be unconstitutional by courts across the country.”
Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, criticized the order as harmful for transgender and cisgender students alike, and called for protecting children, not exposing them to increased discrimination.
“This order could expose young people to harassment and discrimination, emboldening people to question the gender of kids who don’t fit a narrow view of how they’re supposed to dress or look,” she said, in an emailed statement. “Participating in sports is about learning the values of teamwork, dedication, and perseverance. And 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.”
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