By Shirleen Guerra, The Center Square
(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the executive order “No Men in Women’s Sports,” effectively barring transgender girls and women from participating in female sports events in schools and colleges, fulfilling a pledge made during his 2024 presidential campaign.
The executive order directs federal agencies to interpret Title XI, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded programs, to exclude transgender females from female sports.
“From now on, female sports will only be for women,” Trump said at the signing from the White House.
“With my action this afternoon, we are putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice that if you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title XI and risk your federal funding. There will be no federal funding,” he said.
Trump said the move would protect women and girls across K-12 schools and U.S. colleges.
During his news conference, Trump cited two recent examples to support his decision to ban males from competing in female sports. He referenced a 2023 powerlifting competition where a transgender athlete shattered two world records and outlifted the closest female competitor by 450 pounds in a single event. The president also highlighted the 2024 Paris Olympics, where a transgender athlete won a gold medal against a female opponent.
“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” he said.
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will make it clear to the International Olympic committees, “as clear as anyone can make it, that America categorically rejects transgender lunacy,” continuing that they want the Olympics its policies as well.
Trump stated that at the upcoming Olympics in Los Angeles, his administration would not stand by and “watch men beat and batter female athletes,” continuing that “No one is going to be able to do a damn thing about it.”
GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, was critical of the executive order.
“This administration’s latest inaccurate and incoherent piece of paper smears an entire group of Americans but does not change the law or the facts. All women and girls, including transgender women and girls, should be welcome to play sports if they want, make decisions about their own bodies, be hired for jobs they are qualified for, and be free from lawless attacks by elected officials,” the group said. “Anti-LGBTQ politicians with a record of abusing and silencing women and stripping their health care have zero credibility in any conversation about protecting women and girls. Every American should demand that so-called leaders stop attacking vulnerable people and start doing their jobs solving actual problems.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier at a White House briefing that the order will uphold the promise of Title IX, a federal law passed in 1972 that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education activities, including school sports, often used to ensure equality for female athletes. Leavitt stated that the previous administration’s “illegal Title IX rewrite would have dissolved single-sex spaces and opportunities.”
“President Trump pledged to restore common sense to our country – and he’s continuing to deliver on that with an Executive Order that he will sign later today … keeping men out of women’s sports… Gender ideology insanity is over,” said Leavitt.
Leavitt confirmed that Trump fully expects the Olympic committee and the NCAA to no longer allow men to compete in women’s sports, noting that with the signing of his pen, the president ‘starts a very public pressure campaign on these organizations to do the right thing for women and for girls across the country.”
“It’s incredibly important that Congress immediately acts on this,” noting the executive order “upholds the promise of Title IX.” Leavitt noted that Trump has set a tone and made this an immediate priority. The executive order requires immediate action, including enforcement actions against schools and athletic associations that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms.
Trump wants to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, the agency charged with enforcing Title IX, but Leavitt said the Education Department will enforce the order for now. She said that could change if the Education Department is scaled back or abolished.