The War On Women's Sports Is Over

"From now on, women's sports will be only for women," said President Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon, as he signed an executive order threatening to defund any school or university that forces women or girls to compete, or change in front of, male athletes.

"The war on women's sports is over," stated President Trump at the ceremony, repurposing the Democratic campaign slogan "war on women" against his foes. "We're putting every school receiving taxpayers' dollars on notice that 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. There will be no federal funding."

The executive order, titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," calls male athletic competition against females "demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls," a practice that "denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports."

"It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women's sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth," states the order.

The new executive action authorizes the secretary of Education to "prioritize Title IX enforcement actions against educational institutions (including athletic associations composed of or governed by such institutions) that deny female students an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them, in the women's category, to compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males."

Within 60 days, the government will "convene representatives of major athletic organizations and governing bodies, and female athletes harmed by such policies, to promote policies that are fair and safe," as well as "educate" state attorneys general on the topic.

The secretary of State must also promote, "rules and norms governing sports competition to protect a sex-based female sports category" at the international level, "including at the United Nations," and prevent the entry of males who intend to compete against women in U.S. territory.

The date of the signing proved auspicious: February 5 is National Girls and Women in Sports Day. The president surrounded himself with a deep crowd of female athletes, including dozens of children, as he wrote his name, handing out pens to smiling girls.

"It was a great day to celebrate women and girls in the United States," Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), who attended the signing ceremony, told "Washington Watch" on Wednesday. "I'm so thankful that President Trump is acting on his promises."

The latest executive order recognizes the scientific and biblical reality that "God has made us in His image, and we are different," said Bice.

President Trump noted that difference, and the potential harms posed by sports competition, in his remarks. "We will not allow men to beat up, injure, and cheat our women and our girls," said the president. "My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes. We're just not going to let it happen. It's going to end, and it's ending right now. ... Because when I speak, we speak with authority."

Numerous female athletes have sustained injuries at the hands of trans-identified males. Former North Carolina high school volleyball player Payton McNabb suffered "a concussion, vision problems, and partial paralysis to the right side of her body" after a teenage boy who identified as female spiked the ball into her head during a September 2022 match. McNabb revealed she still went to multiple doctor appointments more than a year after the incident.

Fallon Fox, a male MMA fighter who identifies as a transgender female, fractured a woman's skull in the ring. "I knocked two [women] out. One woman's skull was fractured, the other not. And just so you know, I enjoyed it. ... It's bliss," Fox bragged in a since-deleted social media message. Fox said the women deserved their beatings for speaking "transphobic nonsense."

Despite these well-documented injuries, the Biden-Harris administration proposed a federal rule rewriting Title IX to hold that any school refusing to allow trans-identifying men to compete against women would violate federal civil rights laws. The rule was already moot in 26 states when it was overturned in its entirety last month by U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves, a George W. Bush appointee.

The executive order reinstates the original intent of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which orders colleges and universities to treat men's and women's sports equally. The existence of women's sports presupposes the undisputed biological existence of women, something now disputed by the platform of one major political party.

Female athletes such as Riley Gaines objected to being forced to compete against, and change in front of, men, such as William "Lia" Thomas, who ranked 462nd among male swimmers before his "transition." Others bucked social ostracism to join her public protest. "California state law allows for males in female surfing events. This is not fair game. I do not support this," said surfing legend Bethany Hamilton, who had no objection to competing against women despite lacking one arm. Hamilton also spoke at this year's March for Life. Female golfer Alison Crenshaw noted that "female athletes have had their hard work and potential stolen from them, because male athletes were allowed to compete in the female division. It's wrong, it's cheating, and female athletes deserve to have their rights" respected.

On Wednesday, President Trump singled out Riley Gaines, who was in attendance, for praise.

"Riley was a 12-time All-American who sacrificed countless hours in the pool just for a chance at the title. It was so important to her, she just gave everything she had. But then the league forced her to share a spot on the podium with a male swimmer who took her trophy while the media celebrated this stolen glory," said the president. 

The executive order fulfills a promise then-candidate Trump made at the 2023 Pray Vote Stand Summit, where he pledged to "sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children."

He also vowed to stop the transgender industry from carrying out surgeries or other procedures on minors and to release pro-life advocates imprisoned by the Biden administration for violating the FACE Act -- promises he swiftly kept upon taking office.

"Promises made. Promises kept!" declared White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on X.

Pro-family advocates celebrated the occasion. "Thank you, Mr. President!" said David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council.

"The executive order 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' is important legally but also vital for the long-overdue message it sends to women and girls: your rights matter. For too long, our daughters have heard the opposite message from those in power," Kristen Waggoner, president of the Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Washington Stand. "President Trump told our daughters the truth: that men and women are physically different, those differences matter, and women deserve their own sports and spaces."

Waggoner, whose organization has fought a decade of legal battles to protect female athletes from male encroachment, warned that "activist groups will continue to challenge women's sports laws state by state" in court before liberal judges, "thwarting the will of the American people." She urged the Supreme Court to take up the issue.

Parental rights activists also praised the executive order. "We want our daughters to have the ability to compete in athletics competitions on a level playing field without biological boys and men invading their private spaces like locker rooms and taking away their opportunities for medals and scholarships," Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told TWS. "This is a commonsense order that the vast majority of Americans of all political stripes agree with and restores sanity to competitive sport at all levels."

The executive order may be having an impact on collegiate sports already. "Policies, like those of the NCAA, are based on the faulty premise that it is possible to medically close the male-female athletic gap. It's not," states a White House fact sheet accompanying the order. "Men, on average, have greater muscle mass, strength, and cardiovascular capacity due to testosterone levels, which provides them with physical advantages in many sports," and these advantages often persist even if men "transition" to another gender after puberty.

Felicia Martin, vice president of the NCAA's Eligibility Center, said Wednesday, "The Board of Governors is right now having conversations about what potential next steps night be." Later that day, NCAA President Charlie Baker issued a statement declaring that the "NCAA Board of Governors is reviewing the executive order and will take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the coming days, subject to further guidance from the administration."

Protecting women's sports enjoys broad, bipartisan support. Nearly eight out of 10 (79%) Americans -- including 67% of registered Democrats -- oppose allowing "athletes who were male at birth but who currently identify as female" from competing in women's sports, according to a New York Times/Ipsos poll released January 17.

Kamala Harris's focus on transgender issues proved the most potent issue among swing state voters during the 2024 presidential campaign, according to a poll from the Democrat-leaning polling firm Blueprint. During the 2024 campaign, Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin explained, "It's a fairness issue. They don't want their daughters to lose a scholarship, and they don't want them to get hurt."

However, the issue is unlikely to end with an executive order. "Congress has a role in this, as well, and that is to codify in law" the terms of the executive order, Rep. Bice concluded. "It wouldn't surprise me if my colleagues or myself try to draft legislation to codify this, so a future administration won't try to reverse course."

Originally published at The Washington Stand