The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) board of governors announced it unequivocally supports the opportunity for transgender student-athletes to compete in college sports.
“Today the NCAA confirmed it will pull events from states with bills banning trans students from participating in school sports,” tweeted the ACLU.
Any states with laws or policies prohibiting transgender-identified biological males from competing in women’s sports would lose opportunities to host championship events and tournaments.
The NCAA Board of Governors also shared that NCAA policy directs “only locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination should be selected.”
Author Ryan T. Anderson, the head of the Ethics & Public Policy Center, reacted to the news this week on Twitter.
“I don’t know of a single state that bans trans students from participating in school sports,” he tweeted. “Smart states, though, have policies saying physical competition should be based on a student’s biology, not ‘gender identity.'”
“We are seeing more and more transgender athletes competing and posting victories in traditionally gendered sports competitions and doing so to the detriment of girls and women biologically born female.” Republican Tennessee state Rep. Bruce Griffey said in 2020. “Boys and men, due to testosterone levels, bigger bone structure, greater lung capacity, and larger heart size have physical advantages in sports relative to girls and women,” the Tennessee Star reported.
A study released in the Journal of Medical Ethics found male-to-female transgender athletes who abide by the 2015 IOC guidelines and maintain suppressed testosterone levels still have a significant advantage over female athletes.
Researchers argued the IOC testosterone limit (10 nmol/L) is still significantly higher than the average for elite biological female athletes. They said hormone therapy does not eliminate all the performance advantages of a prior male physiology and concluded current IOC regulations further “intolerable unfairness.”
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—By Corine Gatti-Santillo
