Trump moves to bar transgender athletes from women’s sports

US President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order on Wednesday aimed at preventing individuals who were assigned male at birth from competing in women’s or girls’ sporting events.

The order, which Trump is expected to sign during an afternoon ceremony, marks a significant step in his second administration’s aggressive move to limit the recognition of transgender identities.

Last month, on his first day in office, Trump issued a directive requiring the federal government to define sex strictly as male or female across official documents, including passports, and in policies such as federal prison assignments.

The president’s stance on transgender participation in sports resonated widely during his election campaign. He repeatedly pledged to “keep men out of women’s sports”, a message that found support beyond traditional party lines.

Wednesday’s order coincides with National Girls and Women in Sports Day and will focus on the administration’s interpretation of Title IX, the landmark law meant to safeguard gender equality in education and athletics while addressing sexual harassment on campuses.

“This executive order restores fairness, upholds Title IX’s original intent, and defends the rights of female athletes who have worked their whole lives to compete at the highest levels,” said US Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina who has recently thrown herself into anti-trans campaigning.

Each administration has taken a different approach to Title IX enforcement. In 2020, during Trump’s first term, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos introduced a policy that restricted the definition of sexual harassment and limited the scope of investigations universities were required to conduct.

Joe Biden’s subsequent administration reversed those measures in April last year, ensuring LGBTQ+ students’ rights were protected under federal law and adding new safeguards for victims of campus sexual assault. The policy, however, did not explicitly address transgender athletes, prompting multiple Republican-led states to challenge it in court.

The practical implications of Trump’s order remain unclear, given that veri on transgender athlete participation is limited.

A 2021 Associated Press investigation found that states enacting bans on transgender athletes struggled to cite specific cases where participation had posed an issue.

When state legislators in Utah overrode a veto by Governor Spencer Cox in 2022 to implement such a ban, only one transgender girl was found to be registered in any school sports programme in the state.