US President Donald Trump signs executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the order “honours the promise of Title IX” and will prompt immediate enforcement against schools.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports, aligning with the administration's interpretation of Title IX.
The “Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports” order grants federal agencies broad authority to enforce Title IX, requiring federally funded entities to adhere to the Trump administration’s interpretation of “sex” as the gender assigned at birth.
At the signing ceremony in the East Room, President Trump said, “With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” surrounded by lawmakers and female athletes, including former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, who have supported the ban.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the order “honors the promise of Title IX” and will prompt “immediate enforcement actions” against schools and athletic organisations that deny women access to single-sex sports and locker rooms.
Read: What challenges could Trump's order on transgender sports participation face?
The order coincided with National Girls and Women in Sports Day and is the latest in a series of executive actions by the Republican president targeting transgender rights.
During his campaign, Trump found that the issue resonated beyond party lines, with more than half of AP VoteCast survey respondents believing support for transgender rights had gone too far.
He leaned into this rhetoric before the election, vowing to end “transgender insanity,” although his campaign offered few details.
The order provides clearer guidance, authorising the education department to penalise schools that permit transgender athletes to compete, citing violations of Title IX, which bans sex-based discrimination in schools. Schools found in noncompliance could face the risk of losing federal funding.
Enforcing Trump’s orders will be a top priority for the embattled department. In a call this week, the acting director of the Office for Civil Rights instructed staff to align their investigations with Trump’s priorities, according to sources who spoke anonymously to AP due to concerns of retaliation.
Also read: Donald Trump orders ban on ‘transgender ideology’, 'invented pronouns' in military
Ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Trump also issued a stern warning to the International Olympic Committee. He stated that he had given Secretary of State Marco Rubio the task of informing the IOC that “America categorically rejects transgender lunacy,” adding, “We want them to change everything related to the Olympics concerning this absolutely ridiculous issue.”
With AP inputs
