President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday restricting transgender participation in women’s sports, fulfilling a campaign promise and escalating his broader rollback of LGBTQ rights. Titled “No Men in Women’s Sports,” the order directs immediate enforcement against schools and athletic associations, despite executive orders not being laws. The administration expects the NCAA to change its policies accordingly. LGBTQ+ advocates, including Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson, condemned the order, saying,
“We all want sports to be fair, students to be safe, and young people to have the opportunity to participate alongside their peers. But an attempted blanket ban deprives kids of those things.”
According to legal experts swift challenges, as executive orders cannot override civil rights protections without congressional approval. Critics point out that Trump is actually legislating through executive order which may not even be constitutionally legal. But because of the GOP controlling power of the House and Senate, the process of legal lawsuits in the court is a slow process to rebuke Trump’s Executive Orders like this one. But one thing is very clear, the fight for inclusion and fairness in sports is far from over.
