● From our sister site, TheSportsExaminer.com ●
“Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
This fourth paragraph of Wednesday’s 1,155-word “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” Executive Order outlines the Trump Administration policy, which the President announced in front of a large and cheering audience in the East Room of The White House.
The Order goes on with many further specifics:
● “[B]ring regulations and policy guidance into line with the Congress’ existing demand for ‘equal athletic opportunity for members of both sexes’ by clearly specifying and clarifying that women’s sports are reserved for women; and the resolution of pending litigation consistent with this policy”
● “[P]rioritize Title IX enforcement actions against educational institutions (including athletic associations composed of or governed by such institutions) that deny female students an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them, in the women’s category, to compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males.”
The Order builds on the 20 January 2025 Order 14168 that defines males and females as the only sexes recognized by the government, whose sex assignments are “not changeable.”
Specific directions on enforcement were also included in the Order, including an instruction to his domestic policy staff to “convene representatives of major athletic organizations and governing bodies” within 60 days to promote policies compliant with the Order, as well as to ask State attorneys general “to identify best practices in defining and enforcing equal opportunities for women to participate in sports.”
The Order goes further, instructing the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to “convene international athletic organizations and governing bodies, and female athletes harmed by policies that allow male participation in women’s sports, to promote sporting policies that are fair, safe, and in furtherance of the best interests of female athletes.”
And there is direct outreach to the Olympic Movement:
● “The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall review and adjust, as needed, policies permitting admission to the United States of males seeking to participate in women’s sports, and shall issue guidance with an objective of preventing such entry to the extent permitted by law, including pursuant to section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(6)(C)(i)).”
● “The Secretary of State shall use all appropriate and available measures to see that the International Olympic Committee amends the standards governing Olympic sporting events to promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.”
The Order also includes the usual legal notice that “If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this order and the application of its provisions to any other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.”
It’s a wide-ranging policy statement and is designed to be definitive, although its applicability to international organizations – like the International Olympic Committee – is more complicated.
~ Rich Perelman
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