President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 5 calling for an end to men’s participation in women’s sports.
The “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order is aimed at upholding federal Title IX rules—established in 1972 to set a level playing field for women’s athletics programs.
It will put a stop to “dangerous and unfair” situations where males compete against females in school and amateur athletics, according to a White House official.
“All of that ends today because with this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said while signing the order surrounded by dozens of young female athletes. “From now, women’s sports will be only for women.”
The new guidelines are intended to “preserve the rights and dignity for women, opportunities for young girls.”
The president said his administration is removing “woke lunacy” and a “militant transgender ideology” that has placed female athletes in harm’s way “on the front lines.”
“The actions we’re taking today are the latest in a sweeping effort to reclaim our culture and our laws from the radical left crusade against biological reality,” Trump said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed to recent polls that show widespread support for keeping men out of women’s sports, even among Democrats.
“This was a wildly popular position with the American people,” she said during a press briefing on Feb. 5.
Trump is demanding that women be provided equal opportunities in terms of safety, fairness, and privacy. His order points to the benefits of athletics for young girls, including higher self-esteem and fewer instances of drug use, obesity, and teenage pregnancy.
Across the nation, the rules apply to K–12 schools and universities that receive federal funding.
Schools that fail to comply will face investigations by the U.S. Department of Education and could lose federal funding, according to the new order.
Denver East High School is one such school, the White House official said. Investigators are looking into decisions it made to eliminate some women’s restrooms and turn them into coed spaces.
Funds provided through Title IX are dependent on a school’s commitment to preventing discrimination based on sex, among other things.
The Trump administration says it is working with sporting bodies, including a host of associations and organizations, to collectively identify ways to protect women.
The White House is asking the National Collegiate Athletics Association to review its policies. More than 7,000 female collegiate athletes have come forward demanding that male athletes be removed from their competitions, the order notes.
A group of state attorneys general will convene at the White House soon to discuss how state laws on the issue can be enforced, the official said.
Schools and universities that allow men who identify as women to compete in female athletics could face lawsuits from female students who say they have been negatively affected, the official noted.
Nearly 900 medals in women’s sports were awarded to male competitors in recent years, the White House said, noting that this has cost girls scholarship opportunities and other important mental and emotional milestones.
Trump recognized swimmer Riley Gaines, a 12-time NCAA All-American who has championed the women’s rights movement after she was forced to compete against a male athlete.
Athletes who identify as transgender captured 3,500 victories and challenged women in 11,000 competitions, Trump said.
One man competing in women’s powerlifting outlifted his opponent by 440 pounds, the president said during the ceremony.
The safety and privacy of student athletes is of paramount concern, according to the order.
In some instances, sexual assault survivors have been forced to shower and share locker rooms with male athletes, officials said.
McNabb said she sustained a neck injury, concussion, lasting vision impairment, and partial paralysis in the right side of her body, as well as mental anguish.
The previous administration interpreted Title IX regulations quite differently.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office to allow men to compete in women’s programs. He equated gender identity with biological sex, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because of sexuality or gender identity.
“Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love,” Biden’s executive order reads. “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”
This effectively made women’s sports co-ed programs, thus “erasing women’s sports and women’s spaces,” the current White House official said, adding that it was a “slap in the face to the countless female athletes who dedicate tremendous effort to be the best in their sport, only to be forced to compete against biological men.”
In April 2024, a federal appeals court overturned West Virginia’s “Save Women’s Sports Act,” a law barring males from competing in female competitions. The Biden administration had argued against the law.
Trump’s team says it will also work with the United Nations to find solutions, pointing to a U.N. report that found that women need single-sex spaces.
While critics have said that the president is attempting to ban athletes who identify as transgender from sports, the White House says the rules have “nothing to do with that” and suggests that those athletes could play in coed programs or on male squads.
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” the order states. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality.”
He additionally signed an order banning the surgical castration and “mutilation” of minors.
The U.S. House of Representatives also recently passed a bill that would ban men from competing in women’s sports.
With Los Angeles hosting the Olympics in 2028, Trump said he expects the International Olympic Committee to respect federal law and not allow men to compete in women’s sports.
“My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes, we’re just not going to let it happen,” he said.
Two competitors suspected of being male won gold medals in boxing while competing against women in Paris in 2024.
Department of Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem is instructed to deny any visa applications for men applying for entry as women athletes.
