President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' and womenβs sports.
The order, titled βKeeping Men Out of Womenβs Sports,β gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administrationβs view, which interprets βsexβ as the gender someone was assigned at birth.
βWith thisΒ executive order,Β the war on womenβs sports is over,β Trump said at a signing ceremony in the East Room that included lawmakers and female athletes who support a ban, including former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the order βupholds the promise ofΒ Title IXβΒ and will require βimmediate action, including enforcement actions, against schools and athletic associationsβ that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms.
The timing of the order coincided with National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and is the latest in a string of executive actions from the Republican presidentΒ aimed at transgender people.
Trump found during the campaign that the topic resonated beyond the usual party lines. More than half the voters surveyed byΒ AP VoteCastΒ said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far. He leaned into the rhetoric before the election, pledging to get rid of βtransgender insanity,β though his campaign offered little in the way of details.
The order offers some clarity. For example, it authorizes the Education Department to penalize schools that allow transgender athletes to compete, citing noncompliance with Title IX, which prohibits sexual discrimination in schools. Any school found in violation could potentially be ineligible for federal funding.
Enforcing Trumpβs orders will be a priority ofΒ the embattled department.Β
In a call this week, the acting director of the Office for Civil Rights told staff they would need to align their investigations with Trumpβs priorities, according to people who were on the call who spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Already since Trump took office, the department openedΒ an inquiryΒ into Denver public schools over an all-gender bathroom that replaced a girlsβ bathroom, while leaving another one exclusive to boys.
Trump also issued a warning to the International Olympic Committee ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The president said he empowered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make it clear to the IOC that βAmerica categorically rejects transgender lunacy. We want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject.β
The IOC essentially passed the buck on transgender participation, deferring to the international federations for each sport.
That could change, however, when a new IOC president comes on to replace the retiring Thomas Bach.Β Former track star Sebastian Coe, now the leader of World Athletics, is among the candidates up for election in March. Coe is a strong proponent of limiting participation in female sports to cisgender women.
Trump also said that Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem will βdeny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes to try and get into the Games.β
Organizers for the 2028 Olympics did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The order is the latest of a series of moves by the Trump administration targeting transgender people.
Previous ones have sought to have the federal governmentΒ reject the idea that people can transitionΒ to a gender other than the one assigned at birth. That has implications for areas including passports and prisons. Heβs also opened the door toΒ barring transgender service membersΒ from the military; called to end federal health insurance and otherΒ funding for gender-affirming careΒ for transgender people under age 19; and restrict the way lessons on gender can beΒ taught in schools.
Trans-rights advocates, including the National Women's Law Center and GLAAD, condemned Trump's latest order.
βContrary to what the president wants you to believe, trans students do not pose threats to sports, schools or this country, and they deserve the same opportunities as their peers to learn, play and grow up in safe environments," said Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Womenβs Law Center.
Pushback on some of the administration's initiatives already began in court.
Transgender peopleΒ suedΒ over several ofΒ the policiesΒ and more are likely to come. Civil rights lawyers handling the cases asserted that in some instances, Trumpβs orders violate laws adopted by Congress and protections in the ConstitutionΒ β and they overstep the authority of the president.
There could be similar questions for this order, for instance: Can the president demand that the NCAA change its policies?
NCAA President Charlie Baker said its Board of Governors was reviewing the order and βwill take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the coming days, subject to further guidance from the administration." Baker, who said last year he was aware of fewer than 10 active NCAA athletes who identified as transgender, noted the order at least provides a uniform policy instead of a patchwork of state laws.
The order came a day after three former teammates of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas filed a lawsuit accusing the NCAA, Ivy League, Harvard and their own school, Penn, of conspiring to allow Thomas to compete at conference and national championships.
The lawsuit, which makes similar allegations to those filed last year by Gaines and others, alleges the defendants violated Title IX by allowing Thomas to swim βand acted in bad faith.β
Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, M.L. Price, Collin Binkley, Bianca VΓ‘zquez Toness, Geoff Mulvihill and Eddie Pells contributed to this report.
