By Andrea Shalal and Daniel Trotta
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump will issue an executive order on Wednesday to exclude transgender girls and women from female-designated sporting competitions and teams, a directive that Republicans say restores fairness but critics say tramples on the rights of a small minority of athletes.
Trump will sign the executive order at 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) directing the Department of Justice to ban transgender girls and women from participating in female school sports under Trump’s interpretation of Title IX, a law against sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, a White House official said in a briefing. The order will call for “immediate enforcement” in schools nationwide.
The official said the Department of Education would lead investigations into schools to ensure compliance, but that work could shift to other agencies if the department is dismantled, as Trump has pledged to do.
The debate over transgender inclusion in sports has often centered on fairness, with opponents saying that people who have gone through male puberty have physical advantages. Transgender activists say there is no evidence to show that transgender women have an unfair advantage.
The issue has become a rallying cry for Republicans in the United States, though trans athletes account for a very small proportion of athletes at the collegiate and high school level.
The order reverses the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX that it protects transgender people from discrimination on the basis of sex, which was vacated by a federal judge in 2024. The ban fulfills a pledge Trump made during the 2024 presidential campaign, when pro-Trump television advertisements criticized the handful of transgender women and girls who compete in female sports.
More than 20 states have passed laws that ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports, some of which have faced legal challenges.
One such law, in Idaho, was blocked in 2023 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that the law discriminated on the basis of sex.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last April that West Virginia could not enforce its transgender sports ban against a transgender girl who was taking puberty-blocking medication, though the court did not strike down the law altogether. The 9th Circuit blocked enforcement of an Arizona law against two transgender girls in a similar ruling in September.
The Biden administration proposed a federal rule that would have stopped K-12 schools that receive federal funding from categorically barring transgender girls from girls’ sports, though it would have allowed schools to limit their participation if it would undermine fairness or risk injury. The administration withdrew the rule in December.
The U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association requires transgender women athletes to meet testosterone limits on a sport-by-sport basis, but does not track transgender participation in school sports. The organization’s president, Charlie Baker, said in congressional testimony last month that he knew of fewer than 10 current transgender athletes participating in college sports.
Kelley Robinson, president of the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, said Trump’s actions would expose children to harassment and discrimination. “For so many students, sports are about finding somewhere to belong. We should want that for all kids – not partisan policies that make life harder for them,” Robinson said in a statement.
Wednesday’s executive order will direct the Department of Homeland Security to review visa applications of transgender women to make sure they align with their birth sex when they enter the United States to compete in women’s sports.
“If you are coming into the country and you are claiming that you are a woman, but you are a male here to compete against these women, we’re going to be reviewing that for fraud,” the White House official said.
It will also instruct the State Department to “demand changes” within the International Olympic Committee to prevent transgender athletes from competing. The United States will use “all of our authority and our ability” to enforce the order in Olympic events on U.S. soil, the official said. The Summer 2028 Olympics are due to be held in Los Angeles.
The official said the order was aimed at protecting girls and women in schools, citing what they described as thousands of complaints from people concerned about the integration of transgender athletes into sports.
Trump’s administration has taken aim broadly at transgender rights since taking office on Jan. 20. He issued an executive order attempting to deny the legitimacy of transgender identities by ordering government employees to refer only to “sex” and not “gender,” and declaring sex to be an “immutable biological reality” that precludes any change in gender identity.
Other executive orders have attempted to ban transgender people from serving in the military and to end any federal government support for healthcare that aids in gender transition.
While Trump supporters have hailed the president for making good on campaign promises, critics say Trump has overstepped his executive authority while attempting to restrict the rights of transgender people, who amount to 0.6% of the U.S. population over age 13, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Daniela Trotta, Joseph Ax, Brendan Pierson and Lori Ewing; Writing by Julia Harte; Editing by Frank McGurty and Alistair Bell)
