Pennsylvania administrators have made changes to abide by President Donald Trump’s executive order threatening to withhold funds from schools that allow male athletes to compete in female athletics, while officials in New Jersey say they have no plans to comply.
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association voted last week to remove a policy that allowed school principals to determine an athlete’s “gender” eligibility in cases where it is “questioned or uncertain.” The new policy instructs schools to “consult with their school solicitors relative to compliance with” Trump’s order, according to The Associated Press.
On Feb. 5, Trump issued an executive order declaring the “policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational institutions that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities” by allowing trans-identified male athletes to compete on women’s sports teams.
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While the Pennsylvania agency and the NCAA have made changes to comply with Trump’s order, other states have indicated they will not.
Steve Goodell, legal counsel for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association that governs high school sports in New Jersey, confirmed at an executive committee meeting last week that the NJSIAA would not amend its policy allowing trans-identified males to compete in women’s sports.
Goodell defended the policy, insisting that “We have had no hearings, no controversies” related to the participation of trans-identified males in women’s sports, NorthJersey.com reported.
The NJSIAA policy on the participation of trans-identified athletes states that trans-identified students “shall be eligible to participate in accordance with either their birth sex or in accordance with their gender identity, but not both.”
“Any member school may appeal the eligibility of a transgender student on the grounds that the student’s participation in interscholastic athletics would adversely affect competition or safety. Any appeal under this paragraph will be heard by the Eligibility Appeals Committee and shall be confidential,” the policy states. “The Eligibility Appeals Committee will not consider whether the school has properly determined the student’s sex-assignment.”
In 2017, the NJSIAA updated its policy to allow male trans-identified students to play on women’s sports teams without having to provide proof or documentation of their gender dysphoria.
New Jersey is not the only state that has indicated that it would not comply with Trump’s executive order. Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills vowed that her state would not amend its policies to ensure that trans-identified male athletes will not compete in women’s sports.
After Trump threatened to withhold federal funds from her state at a National Governors Association event at the White House last week, Mills issued a statement declaring that her administration and the state attorney general will “take appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides.”
When Trump made similar comments to Mills a day earlier, she responded, “We’ll see you in court.” Trump replied, “I look forward to that.”
“That should be a real easy one,” Trump said.
Twenty-seven states require athletes to compete on sports teams that align with their biological sex: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The push to prohibit males from competing in women’s sports stems from concerns about fairness for female athletes in light of the biological differences between men and women.
For example, USA Powerlifting has listed “increased body and muscle mass, bone density, bone structure, and connective tissue” as factors that give men, on average, an advantage over women in athletics.
Real-world examples of trans-identified males dominating women’s sports have also generated backlash.
A new Harvard-Harris Poll, based on responses collected from 2,443 registered voters on Feb. 19 and 20, showed strong support for Trump’s executive orders seeking to prohibit trans-identified males from competing in women’s sports and making it government policy to recognize two genders.
Sixty-nine percent of voters expressed support for the former executive order, while 68% indicated that they favored “declaring that there are only two genders male and female in all government forms and documents.”
Majorities of both Republicans (86%) and independents (70%) expressed support for “banning men who have undergone operations and hormones to become women from girls’ sports” as did one-half (50%) of Democrats. While large majorities of Republicans (90%) and independents (67%) favored establishing recognition of only two genders as government policy, less than half of Democrats (44%) said the same.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
