The NCAA has amended its policies regarding participation of transgender-identifying athletes in response to President Trump’s on executive order on “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports.”
On Thursday, the NCAA announced the update, with the changes taking immediate effect.
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”A student-athlete assigned male at birth may not compete on a women’s team,” the new guideline reads. “A student-athlete assigned male at birth may practice on the team consistent with their gender identity and receive all other benefits applicable to student-athletes who are otherwise eligible for practice.”
Both male and female athletes can compete on men’s teams, “[r]egardless of sex assigned at birth or gender identity,” so long as they meet all other NCAA eligibility requirements.
However, women athletes who have begun “transitioning” are barred from official athletic competitions.
”A student-athlete assigned female at birth who has begun hormone therapy (e.g., testosterone) may not compete on a women’s team,” the rule stipulates. “If such competition occurs, the team is subject to NCAA mixed-team legislation, and the team will no longer be eligible for NCAA women’s championships.”
In his Feb. 5 executive order, President Trump noted that is now “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.”
Trump also indicated that the Secretary of State will encourage the International Olympic Committee to adopt policies that “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.”
In a prepared statement, NCAA President Charlie Baker commended Trump for providing a “clear, national standard.”
”The updated policy combined with these resources follows through on the NCAA’s constitutional commitment to deliver intercollegiate athletics competition and to protect, support and enhance the mental and physical health of student-athletes,” Baker, a former Massachusetts Republican governor, remarked. “This national standard brings much needed clarity as we modernize college sports for today’s student-athletes.”
As governor in 2016, Baker signed into law a bill that allowed transgender-identifying individuals to use locker rooms and bathrooms in accordance with their “gender identity.”
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
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