The School District of Philadelphia plans to defy President Donald Trump’s executive order by allowing males to continue competing in women’s sports despite the state’s governing body for high school and middle school athletics changing its policies to comply with the directive.
In a Thursday statement provided to The Christian Post, the district vowed it will uphold Board Policy 252, which passed in 2016 and allows trans-identifying or “gender nonconforming” students to participate in intramural sports “in a manner consistent with their gender identity.”
The policy leaves the issue of participation in interscholastic competitive sports teams to be resolved on “a case-by-case basis.”
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
“The School District of Philadelphia strives to ensure safety, equity and justice for all students regardless of gender identity or gender expression so that they can imagine and realize any future they desire,” a spokesperson for the district told CP. “The District will continue to align its practices to support its LGBTQ+ students in accordance with Board Policy 252 for transgender and gender non-conforming students.”
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association board revised its policy last week to comply with Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
The old policy deferred to school principals to determine an athlete’s “gender” when “questioned or uncertain,” but one of the revisions under the new policy included the replacement of the word “gender” with “sex.”
Another addition is a new line that states, “In accordance with the Presidential Executive Order 14201 entitled ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,’ dated February 5, 2025, schools are required to consult with their school solicitors relative to compliance with the Order.”
Trump’s executive order decried the practice of allowing men to compete in women’s sports as “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls.”
The order also directed executive agencies to take “all appropriate action to protect all-female athletic opportunities,” promising to withdraw federal funding from educational institutions that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.
“Moreover, under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 (Title IX), educational institutions receiving Federal funds cannot deny women an equal opportunity to participate in sports,” the order stated. “As some Federal courts have recognized, ‘ignoring fundamental biological truths between the two sexes deprives women and girls of meaningful access to educational facilities.'”
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating a Maine school district and the state’s Department of Education for refusal to comply with Trump’s order.
In a letter last week, the federal education department informed MDOE that allowing males to compete in girls’ sports is considered a violation of federal antidiscrimination law. The letter also named Maine School Administrative District #51 as another subject of its investigation.
The district received media attention after Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby shared a photo on social media of a male Greely High School student competing in a girls’ pole-vaulting state championship.
Last year, the male student tied for fifth place when he competed in the boys’ Class B pole vault, but he ended up winning the girl’s pole-vaulting state championship in Maine this year.
“Maine would have you believe that it has no choice in how it treats women and girls in athletics — that is, that it must follow its state laws and allow male athletes to compete against women and girls,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement last week.
“Let me be clear: If Maine wants to continue to receive federal funds from the Education Department, it has to follow Title IX,” Trainor added.
“If it wants to forgo federal funds and continue to trample the rights of its young female athletes, that, too, is its choice. OCR will do everything in its power to ensure taxpayers are not funding blatant civil rights violators.”
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
