Donald Trump has signed a sweeping executive order to force schools and athletic organizations to ban transgender girls and women from competing in women’s sports.
The order — which falsely categorizes trans women as “men” — fulfills the president’s campaign promise to end “the dangerous and unfair participation of men in women’s sports” by directing federal law enforcement agencies to take “immediate action” against schools and associations that “deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms,” according to a White House document shared with The Independent.
In remarks from the White House on Wednesday while surrounded by young girls, Trump claimed that the “radical left” has “waged an all-out campaign to erase the very concept of biological sex and replace it with a militant transgender ideology.”
“If you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding,” he said.
Trump is also ordering state attorneys general to “identify best practices for ensuring equal opportunities for women in sports and to highlight impact stories of women harmed by male athletes competing in women’s sports,” according to the White House.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also ordered to direct the International Olympic Committee to “preserve single-sex sports, a necessity for safety and fairness,” the document states.
Transgender athletes who “beat and batter female athletes” is “going to end, it’s ending right now, and no one’s going to do a damn thing about it,” Trump said.
Trump’s order — which follows Republican-led virtue signaling, lawsuits and legislation that have dominated state legislatures and campaigns over the last several years — joins the administration’s broader efforts to erase federal protections and recognition of transgender people.
LGBT+ civil rights groups have blasted Republican-led attacks as a manufactured “non issue” affecting only a handful of vulnerable Americans, all in an effort to whip up votes while unleashing a wave of discriminatory attacks against trans Americans.
An executive order issued on his first day in office requires federal agencies to recognize gender as an “immutable” male-female binary determined by biological sex, assigned at conception, that cannot be changed.
On Wednesday, Trump called the order an attempt to “reclaim our culture and our laws” from trans people.
Among other changes across the whole of government, Trump’s Day One order also calls for the replacement of all mentions of “gender” with “sex,” ends gender self-identification on federal documents such as passports, and commands agencies to ignore the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling that protects against discrimination on the basis of sexuality or gender identity.
His latest executive order directs how his administration will interpret Title IX, the landmark civil rights law designed to prevent schools that receive federal funding from discriminating against women and girls, as well as survivors of sexual assault and pregnant students.
Joe Biden’s administration sought to implement rule changes that extend discrimination protections based on gender identity or sexual orientation, which the administration later abandoned and a federal judge blocked from taking effect.
