Trump signs executive order intended to bar transgender athletes from female sports

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration’s view, which interprets “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth.

“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at a signing ceremony in the East Room that included lawmakers and female athletes who have come out in support of a ban, including former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines.

‘Pretty big jolt:’ A Japan Airlines plane hits a Delta aircraft at Sea-Tac Airport

“Washington state has some of the strongest protections in the nation and we will work to keep those protections,” WA State House Speaker Laurie Jinkins (D-27th District) said.

“We have their backs,” Sen. Jamie Pedersen (D-43rd District) stated. “We will do everything we can and within our power to make sure that Washington state remains a safe and welcoming place for them.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the order “upholds the promise of Title IX” and will require “immediate action, including enforcement actions, against schools and athletic associations” 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 president aimed at transgender people.

Trump found during the campaign that the topic resonated beyond the usual party lines. More than half the voters surveyed by AP VoteCast 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 “transgender insanity,” though his campaign offered little in the way of details.

Sen. Patty Murray: ‘We are pulling the fire alarm here’

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 Trump’s orders will be a priority of the embattled department. In a call this week, the acting director of the Office for Civil Rights told staff they would need to align their investigations with Trump’s priorities, according to people who were on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to AP for fear of reprisals.

Already since Trump took office, the department has opened an inquiry into Denver public schools over an all-gender bathroom that replaced a girls’ 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 had empowered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make it clear to the IOC that “America 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.”

The IOC has 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. Former track star Sebastian Coe, now the leader of World Athletics, is among the candidates up for election in March. Coe has been a strong proponent of limiting participation in female sports to cisgender women.

Trump also said that Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem will “deny 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.”

The United State Olympic and Paralympic Committee and 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 government reject the idea that people can transition to a gender other than the one assigned at birth. That has implications for areas including passports and prisons. He’s also opened the door to barring transgender service members from the military; called to end federal health insurance and other funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people under age 19; and restrict the way lessons on gender can be taught in schools.

The latest order was condemned by trans-rights advocates, including the National Women’s Law Center and GLAAD.

“Contrary 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 Women’s Law Center.

Pushback on some of the administration’s initiatives has already begun in court. Transgender people have sued over several of the policies and more are likely to come. Civil rights lawyers handling the cases have asserted that in some instances, Trump’s orders violate laws adopted by Congress and protections in the Constitution – and that 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 told Republican senators in December that the organization would follow federal law. The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

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 “and acted in bad faith.”

Contributing: The Associated Press; Matt Markovich, KIRO Newsradio; Bill Kaczaraba, MyNorthwest