US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.
“From now on women’s sports will be only for women,” Trump said before he signed the order at the White House, surrounded by dozens of children and female athletes, news agency AFP reported.
He said, “With this executive order the war on women’s sports is over.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump posted, “Under the Trump Administration, we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes. From now on, women’s sports will be ONLY FOR WOMEN!”
The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” gives federal agencies, including the Justice and Education departments, wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration’s view, which interprets a person’s sex as the gender they were assigned at birth.
He wrote, “We are putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice: If you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding.”
As per the details, the order also calls for private sporting bodies to meet at the White House so the president can hear in person “the stories of female athletes who have suffered livelong injuries, who have been silenced and forced to shower with men and compete with men on athletic fields across the country”, Los Angeles Times reported.
The order further directs the secretary of state to push for changes within the International Olympic Committee to maintain single-sex competition and the Department of Homeland Security to review visa policies to prevent transgender women from identifying as female, which would allow them to compete in women’s sports.
Trump, during his election campaign, pledged to “keep men out of women’s sports.”
“WITH THIS EXECUTIVE ORDER, THE WAR ON WOMENS SPORTS IS OVER!PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT!!!”, Trump said in a post.
