The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the governing body for mostly small colleges, announced a policy Monday that bars all transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
The NAIA Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote. The NAIA, which oversees about 83,000 athletes at schools across the country, is believed to be the first college sports organization to take such a step.
Under the transgender participation policy, all athletes may participate in NAIA-sponsored men’s sports, but only athletes whose biological gender at birth is female and who have not begun hormone therapy will be eligible to participate in women’s sports.
A student who has started hormone therapy may participate in activities such as practices, practices, and team activities, but not in interscholastic competition.
The NAIA Competitive Cheer and Competitive Dance programs are open to all students. NAIA policy notes that every other sport “incorporates some combination of strength, speed and endurance, providing competitive advantages for male student-athletes.”
NAIA President and CEO Jim Carr said in an interview with The Associated Press that he understood the policy would be controversial, but that it was deemed best for member schools for competitive reasons.
“We know there are a lot of opinions and a lot of people react very emotionally to this, and we want to be respectful of all of that,” Carr said. “But we think our primary responsibility is fairness in competition, so we’re following that path. And we tried as hard as we could to allow some input from everyone.”
The 2023-24 NAIA policy does not prohibit transgender and non-binary athletes from competing in the division of their choice in the regular season. In the postseason, and with some exceptions for those who had hormone therapy, athletes were required to compete in the division of their birth gender.
There is no known number of transgender athletes at the high school and college level, although it is believed to be small. The topic has become a hot-button issue among conservative groups and others who believe transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete on women’s and girls’ sports teams.
Shivali Patel, senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, said her organization was outraged by the NAIA’s policy.
“This is unacceptable and blatant discrimination that not only harms trans, non-binary and intersex individuals, but limits the potential of all athletes,” Patel said in a statement. “It is important to recognize that these discriminatory policies do not enhance fairness in competition. Instead, they send a message of exclusion and reinforce dangerous stereotypes that harm all women.”
Last month, more than a dozen current and former college students filed a federal lawsuit against the NCAA, accusing the sports governing body of more than 500,000 athletes of violating their rights by allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports.
Hours after the NAIA’s announcement, the NCAA released a statement: “College sports is the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and the NCAA will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports, and ensure fair competition for all student-athletes in all championships.” of the NCAA.”
At least 24 states have laws that prohibit transgender women and girls from competing in certain sports for women or girls.
The Biden administration initially planned to release a new federal rule, Title IX — the law prohibiting gender-based discrimination in education — affecting both campus sexual assault and transgender athletes. Earlier this year, the department decided to separate them into separate rules, and the athletics rule now remains in limbo.
“It’s similar to the NIL thing with all these different state laws,” said Casey Havecost, a former Division I athlete who is now a higher education attorney at Bricker Graydon. “The NCAA does something, but nothing happens, and they look to the federal government, and the federal government slowly puts something in, and then we’re left with all these different state laws.”
Havekost expects lawsuits to follow challenging the NAIA policy based on Title IX laws.
“I feel like at some point it’s going to have to be addressed,” she said. “It’s a really complicated question. A Supreme Court decision may be required.”
About 190 of the NAIA’s 241 schools are private, and about 125 of those have varying degrees of religious affiliation, Carr said. Of the 20 presidents who voted, 17 were from schools affiliated with Christian denominations.
“People have certain worldviews, and while I believe all of our Presidents’ Council members are trying to think what’s best for the NAIA, they certainly come to these kinds of issues with their own beliefs and the missions of their institutions.” , Carr said. “I think it has some impact.”
Patel said the NAIA ban, along with state laws, “underscores the urgency of having clear Title IX rules that expressly prohibit this type of gender-based discrimination and guarantee the rights of all students, including transgender, nonbinary and intersex athletes , are protected. The carriers deserve a chance to play.”
The NCAA has had a transgender athlete participation policy since 2010 that requires one year of testosterone-suppressing treatment and documented testosterone levels submitted before championship competition. In 2022, the NCAA revised its policies regarding the participation of transgender athletes in an effort to align with national sports governing bodies, following the lead of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
The three-phase implementation of the policy included a continuation of the 2010 policy requiring transgender women to be on hormone replacement therapy for at least one year, plus submit to a hormone level test prior to the start of both the regular season and championship events.
The third phase adds national and international sports governing body standards to the NCAA’s policy and — after some delay — is scheduled to go into effect for the 2024-25 school year on Aug. 1.
There are about 15.3 million public high school students in the United States, and a 2019 study by the CDC estimated that 1.8 percent of them — about 275,000 — are transgender. The number of athletes in this group is much smaller; a 2017 study by the Human Rights Campaign found that less than 15% of all transgender boys and transgender girls play sports.
The number of transgender NAIA athletes would be much smaller.
