Trump signs order banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports

Acting on one of his major campaign promises, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that would prevent transgender women and girls from competing in female sports in federally funded schools.

The “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” measure directs the Education Department to withdraw funding to schools not abiding by the order. The move comes after Trump signed an order on his first day in office that called on the federal government to recognize only two sexes, male and female.

Now, schools and other institutions that receive federal funding will be considered in violation of the landmark 1972 civil rights law, Title IX, that outlaws sex-based discrimination. He argues that allowing trans women in women’s sports gives them an unfair advantage.

The order also calls for the State Department to demand changes in the International Olympic Committee, creating women’s sports eligibility criteria determined by sex rather than gender identity.

The order seeks to prevent people biologically assigned male at birth from competing in women’s sports.

Sex is the biological and physiological characteristics that define humans as male or female. Gender is a social construct that identifies someone as a man, woman, transgender, non-binary, genderqueer and more.

Advocacy organizations have legally challenged these orders, arguing that they are unconstitutional and violate human rights.