Washington D.C, United States – President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order on Wednesday aimed at barring transgender women, those biologically assigned male at birth, from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
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The order, which will be signed during an afternoon ceremony, is the latest in a series of moves by the Republican president’s second administration to address transgender rights and redefine the federal government’s approach to gender and s@x-related policies.
This latest action follows a broad executive order issued by Trump last month, which called for the federal government to define s*x strictly as male or female.
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The new guidelines will be applied to official documents, including passports, and influence policies related to federal prison assignments.
Trump’s campaign for a second term highlighted his promise to “keep men out of women’s sports,” a position that gained widespread support beyond his traditional political base.
According to AP VoteCast, more than half of voters surveyed expressed concerns that transgender rights in government and society had gone too far, signalling a political landscape that the Trump administration is tapping into.
The executive order, which coincides with National Girls and Women in Sports Day, seeks to interpret Title IX – the landmark law aimed at ensuring gender equity in sports and protecting students from sexual harassment.
“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 U.S. Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina.
Every U.S. administration has the authority to issue its own interpretation of Title IX, and this order represents another shift in the ongoing debate. The previous Trump administration, under Secretary Betsy DeVos, issued a Title IX policy in 2020 that narrowed the definition of sexual harassment. In contrast, the Biden administration rolled back that policy last year, establishing new protections for LGBTQ+ students and addressing campus sexual assault victims’ rights, though it stopped short of explicitly regulating transgender athletes. Several Republican-led states immediately challenged this policy in court.
Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School, pointed out that Trump could easily shift the conversation by claiming the administration will interpret regulations in a more traditional manner.
The impact of this executive order on the transgender athlete community remains uncertain. The number of transgender athletes is difficult to quantify, and many states that have introduced bans on transgender athletes have reported minimal to no impact. In Utah, where a law was passed in 2022 overriding a veto by Governor Spencer Cox, only one transgender girl in K-12 sports was affected by the ban, leaving transgender boys unregulated.
As the debate over transgender participation in sports intensifies, this executive order marks a significant moment in the intersection of gender, sports, and politics in America.