Trump will sign executive order banning trans women and girls from women’s sports

The president’s latest order joins a broad push to erase protections for LGBT+ Americans that civil rights groups have blasted as a manufactured crisis. Donald Trump will sign a sweeping executive order on Wednesday to force schools and athletic organizations to ban transgender girls and women from competing in women’s sports. 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 will also be ordered to direct the International Olympic Committee to “preserve single-sex sports, a necessity for safety and fairness,” the document states. 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. During a Senate hearing last year, NCAA President Charlie Baker said that there were fewer than 10 transgender athletes currently participating in college sports.

“We all want sports to be fair, students to be safe, and young people to have the opportunity to participate alongside their peers,” Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson said in a statement. “But an attempted blanket ban deprives kids of those things,” she added. Trump’s order “could expose young people to harassment and discrimination, emboldening people to question the gender of kids who don’t fit a narrow view of how they’re supposed to dress or look,” Robinson said.

Last year, House Republicans passed “The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” to ban schools that receive federal funding from allowing trans girls and women to compete in sports designated for “women or girls.” Republican state lawmakers across the country have introduced dozens of similar bills to ban transgender athletes from playing in school sports that align with their gender.