Transgender people make up less than 1% of the population, while the percentage of transgender athletes make up even less, 0.008%. According to the NCAA, out of 500,000 NCAA student-athletes, less than 10 openly identify as transgender. Despite being a very small population that is unrepresented, the Trump Administration has made it its goal to do everything they can to erase the transgender community, specifically transgender athletes.
While the world is open to transgender athletes competing, Trump has passed an executive order not allowing trans athlete women competing on women’s teams. According to the NCAA’s newest change in their Participation Policy for Trangender Student-Athletes, “ a. Student-athlete assigned male at birth. i. Competition. A student-athlete assigned male at birth may not compete on a women’s team.” The NCAA’s newest policy change on transgender athletes has only affected transgender women athletes.
When transgender athletes decide to publically transition, they usually have to quit the sport they play in order to have time to go through HRT (hormone therapy) and the process of qualifying for the desired team. Alexia Cerenys, a French rugby player had to quit and take four years of HRT and was able to switch to a women’s team according to a CBS News article.
According to the British Journal of Sports Medicine, they were able to find that, “The 15-13% athletic advantage that trans women displayed over their female counterparts prior to starting gender affirming hormones declined with feminising therapy.” After 2 years or more of HRT, statistically proven that transgender women don’t have a “physical advantage” competing against cisgender women.
Before this executive ban, transgender athletes were being targeted by rival teams claiming “trans players would discriminate against women by denying them equal opportunities.” according to a NYTimes article in 2024. In Colorado, four volleyball teams in protest of a transgender athlete on the opposing team, refused to compete against San Jose State University.
The transgender athlete had followed all the necessary medical documentation needed to play on a womens team as needed by the NCAA’s policy before the recent change, “transgender athletes must submit documentation showing that they have “taken the necessary steps to transition to their adopted gender,” according to guidelines from USA Volleyball, the sport’s governing body.”
Trump has made numerous attempts to stop trans people from getting gender-affirming care they need and banning transgender women athletes competing on women’s teams. In response to Trump’s executive orders banning trangender affirming care under the age of 19, organizations and families have been suing the Trump Administration causing Federal Judges to put temporary restraining orders on his executive orders.
The first temporary block started on February 11 issued by Federal Judge Brendan Hurson overseeing a case in Baltimore. According to LAMBDALegal.org, Hurson issued a temporary restraining order for 14 days. On February 26, the preliminary injunction extended this temporary order for another week which ended on March 5th.
Another anti-transgender executive order that Trump has issued was banning trans women and girls from womens sports. This executive order has led many anti-trans bills to be passed all over the U.S. According to TheGuardian, “US Senate Democrats banded together to torpedo a Republican bill that would ban transgender athletes from women’s sports, defeating the legislation in a razor-sharp party-line vote of 51-45 on Monday evening.” The Republican bill, The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, led by Senator Tommy Tuberville in Alabama failed before it was able to reach 60 votes.
Trump’s executive order banning trans women from womens sports uses the claim that they are physically stronger than their cisgender counterparts. According to Forbes, a cross-sectional study in 2023, was done to examine the athletic capabilities and differences between trans athletes who have undergone hormone therapy and cisgender athletes.
The study showed that transgender women had “similar testosterone concentration (TW 0.7±0.5 nmol/L, CW 0.9±0.4 nmol/), higher oestrogen (TW 742.4±801.9 pmol/L, CW 336.0±266.3 pmol/L, p=0.045), and lower relative V̇O2max (TW 45.1±13.3 mL/kg/min/, CW 54.1±6.0 mL/kg/min, p<0.001) compared with CW athletes.”
In this article, it also states that in previous reports from 2011-2022, they had similar results examining transgender women and cisgender women. This IOC (International Olympic Committee) funded study found that, “lung size, bone density, and hip-to-toe joint angle do not indicate athletic prowess” and “Testosterone levels do not predict athletic performance or overall athleticism.”
According to Anna Baeth, a director of research with Athlete Ally stated that, “The science is murky when it comes to specific hormones like testosterone and trans women athletes – primarily because no study, until this one, have examined trained athletes who identify as transgender.”
Transgender women athletes and trans people are unjustly targeted by the Trump Administration’s executive orders and republicans claiming transgender women have an advantage when competing against cisgender athletes. Despite showing that identifying as transgender does not equal an advantage.
Written by Andrew Gomez, Staff Writer