“Women banned from women’s sports.” Headlines of this nature swept through news outlets like ESPN when the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics announced that they were banning transgender women athletes from competing in women’s athletics. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, better known as NAIA, oversees around 83,000 college athletes that compete in more than 25 sports and represent over 200 colleges. On April 8th, they announced their transgender participation policy, which won a 20-0 vote at their annual convention, and is considered the first by a college sports organization to take such a step.
The policy specifies that these transgender female athletes may participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports, but only those whose biological sex assigned at birth as female and those who have not begun hormone therapy can compete in women’s sports. If a student has begun hormone therapy, they may participate in activities such as workouts and team activities, but not in interscholastic competition. With the exception of competitive cheer and dance, which is open to all genders, NAIA has separate categories for male and female athletes.
Despite the projected number of transgender athletes in NAIA being small, the question of whether to allow them to participate in women’s sports has been a controversial topic for some time. In March, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, known as NCAA, was the subject of a federal lawsuit after dozens of the 500,000 students the organization represents claimed that their rights were violated by the NCAA allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports. The NCAA and NAIA are on opposite sides of the debate, and neither has received unanimous support. In fact, shortly after the NAIA made their policy public, the NCAA released a statement denouncing the decision.
“College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America and the NCAA will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition for all student-athletes in all NCAA championships,” the NCAA said.
The Title IX rule in question forbids discrimination based on sex in education and was a law updated by the Biden administration to include transgender athletes and as an umbrella law that would address multiple campus concerns. However, the law was split earlier this year, and now the athletics rule is separate and in a limbo that allows organizations and state governments to make the final call. Currently, 24 states have laws that prevent transgender women from competing in certain women’s sports competitions. This lack of consensus highlights the need for a clear and unified Title IX rule, one that ensures the same rights and opportunities to all students. Discriminatory policies such as NAIA’s do not enhance fairness in competition, instead they send a message that reinforces the stereotype that women are inherently weaker than men. By allowing transgender students to compete in men’s sports but not women’s, for a fear that they would outperform, it is telling athletes that they are welcome to participate, as long as they lose.
