States risk federal funding in defying Trump order on women’s sports

• States allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports must either comply with President Trump’s executive order banning their participation or risk losing federal education funding. The order rolls back the Biden administration’s changes on Title IX guidance, adding protections for gender identity.

• The U.S. Department of Education has opened investigations into organizations for potentially violating federal anti-discrimination laws related to girls’ and women’s sports.

• Some states are choosing to follow their state laws on gender identity instead of complying with the executive order despite the risk of losing federal funding.

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States across America that allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports are facing a potentially expensive decision. They must either follow President Donald Trump’s executive order and reverse course or risk losing federal education funding. Some are choosing the latter.

President Trump signed an executive order banning people assigned male at birth from women’s sports on National Girls and Women in Sports Day. The order rolls back the Biden administration’s changes on Title IX guidance, adding protections for gender identity. Trump said the order aims to protect “fair athletic opportunities” for women.

The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday, Feb. 12, that it had opened up investigations into both the Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation for their plans to “violate federal antidiscrimination laws related to girls’ and women’s sports.”

“The Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation are free to engage in all the meaningless virtue-signaling that they want, but at the end of the day, they must abide by federal law,” acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement. “OCR’s Chicago and San Francisco regional offices will conduct directed investigations into both organizations to ensure that female athletes in these states are treated with the dignity, respect, and equality that the Trump Administration demands.”

In Maine, the state’s Principal’s Association (MPA) said they plan to continue allowing those assigned male at birth to compete in women’s sports. 

“The executive order and our Maine state Human Rights Act are in conflict, and the Maine Principal’s Association will continue to follow state law as it pertains to gender identity,” MPA Executive Director Mike Burnham told Maine Public.

Trump’s order states that entities disobeying the rules would be violating Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Doing so triggers a process that includes terminating federal funding. 

Earlier this month, the NCAA announced that it had changed its policies to disallow transgender women to compete in its women’s sports. On the same day, the Office of Civil Rights launched investigations into San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for reported violations of Title IX.