President Trump reportedly is poised to issue an executive order on Wednesday that would ban transgender girls from participating in female sports in schools and colleges.
Trump, who says it’s unfair to let “biological men” compete in women’s and girls sports, plans to sign the so-called Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports order at a White House ceremony, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) said Tuesday in a statement.
It’s not known exactly what the order will say or what legal rationale it will use. Wednesday’s signing ceremony coincides with National Girls & Women in Sports Day.
There was no immediate reaction from Attorney General Letitia James, who has sought to block a separate Trump effort to outlaw gender affirming care for minors and instructed New York hospitals not to comply with the order.
The Trump order is likely to conflict with New York state and city education guidance, which allow students to participate in sports aligned with their gender identity.
Last school year, members of a local education council in Manhattan passed a resolution calling on the city’s school system to rethink its policy, saying it was unfair to the female sex. Top education officials quickly shut down the appeal for discriminating against transgender students.
“Talking to the students on our panel, they basically have said over and over that nobody that they know in their schools was ever worried about transgender girls participating in sports,” said Gavin Healy, a member of Community Education Council 2, who advocated against the resolution. “For them, it was a nonissue.”
The House of Representatives last month passed a law that would amend Title IX of the Civil Rights Act to ban transgender girls from female sports. Two moderate South Texas Democrats joined Republicans in backing the bill, which has not yet been voted on by the Senate.
The Trump order on women’s sports would be the latest in a flurry of orders rolling back transgender rights, notably his order declaring that the government will categorize all people as either men or women and another that bans openly transgender troops from serving in the military.
Trump has also aggressively pushed to end so-called “gender ideology” in federal agencies. Federal workers were warned last week to immediately remove preferred pronouns from their email signatures to comply with the sweeping new edict.
Trump regularly railed against transgender women in women’s sports on the campaign trail and polls say a majority of Americans support his stance.
“This executive order restores fairness … and defends the rights of female athletes who have worked their whole lives to compete at the highest levels,” Mace said Tuesday.
Mace has spearheaded an effort to bar transgender people including Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Delaware), the first openly trans member of Congress, from using women’s bathrooms at the Capitol or other federal offices.
Independent experts and even some Republican politicians say the number of transgender women competing in school and college sports is minuscule, raising questions about the need for such actions.