Transgender girls and women will no longer participate in female events during most university sporting events in the United States after the decision of a director of prohibiting born athletes.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association, the main director of university sport in the United States, said on Thursday that this would limit competition in sport for girls and female athletes born by women.
The NCAA’s announcement comes after US President Donald Trump signed a decree the day before to refuse the financing of educational institutions that allow trans girls and women to participate in a female sport.
“NCAA is an organization made up of 1,100 colleges and universities in the 50 states which collectively register more than 530,000 students-athletes. We firmly believe that clear, coherent and uniform eligibility standards would be used today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflictual laws and court decisions, “said the president of the NCAA, Charlie Baker, in a press release.
“To this end, the order of President Trump provides a clear national standard.”
Baker said that the change reflected the organization’s commitment to “protect, support and improve the mental and physical health of student-athletes”.
“This national standard brings an essential clarity while we modernize university sports for today’s student-athletes,” he said.
NCAA is by far the largest director of university sports in the United States, with more than 500,000 students athletes who participate in its events each year.
Other major umbrella organizations, such as the National Association of Intercollegate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), supervise competitions with less than 100,000 annual competitors.
The participation of trans women in sport has become a political lightning rod in the United States, defenders of LGBTQ rights calling for greater inclusion of trans and criticisms arguing that their participation is unfair to girls and women.
Opinion polls have underlined increasing opposition from the public to trans women who compete against athletes born by women in the midst of very publicized controversies involving the participation of athletes, as the university swimmer Lia Thomas.
Thomas, who was born from male sex and began hormone therapy to replace at the end of his adolescence, won the national championship of division I of NCAA in 2022 before being prohibited from female events of World Aquatics.
In a New York Times / Ipsos survey published last month, 79% of Americans said that trans women should not be authorized to participate in female sports against 62% in 2021.
Riley Gaines, a former university swimmer who joined a trial against the NCAA for his decision to allow Thomas to participate in female events, praised the announcement of the sports organization.
“I can’t even start to tell you how justifying it knowing that no girl will never have to live what my teammates and I did,” said Gaines sur X.
Trump, who signed four decrees against trans people, has repeatedly criticized efforts to continue the LGBTQ inclusion in sport and other areas of life during his electoral campaign.
During a signature ceremony for his decree on women’s sport on Wednesday, Trump said that his administration would not “remain men and watch men beat and beat women athletes”.
LGBTQ advocacy organizations have largely condemned Trump’s order as discriminatory and not based on facts.
“We know that this day would probably occur for a long time, because this administration continues to pursue simple solutions to complex problems, often causing animus to the most marginalized communities of our country,” said athlete Ally, who defends The inclusion of the inclusion of Wednesday, LGBTQ people in a press release.
“Despite this decree, we will continue to choose love, acceptance and curiosity with anyone interested in creating a future of sports where everyone belongs.”
