KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Nationwide Intercollegiate Athletic Affiliation on Monday banned transgender ladies from competing in ladies's sports activities, taking a more durable stance than different sports activities our bodies that enable trans athletes to compete based mostly on testosterone ranges.
The NAIA, representing principally small schools, is much less influential than the Nationwide Collegiate Athletic Affiliation (NCAA), however its choice carries some political weight within the broader US debate over transgender rights.
“Solely NAIA student-athletes whose organic intercourse is feminine might take part in NAIA-sponsored ladies's sports activities,” the affiliation stated in its coverage.
Feminine athletes who’ve begun masculinizing hormone remedy might take part in inside coaching, observe and crew actions, however are prohibited from exterior competitors. Any eligible athlete might take part in males's sports activities, the coverage stated.
The vote by the affiliation's Council of Presidents was 20-Zero, ESPN reported.
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Marketing campaign, which advocates for LGBTQ rights, criticized the coverage as a “cowardly choice that enables discrimination.”
The NAIA has 83,000 athletes at 250 faculties, whereas the NCAA has greater than 500,000 athletes at 1,100 member faculties, in accordance with their respective web sites.
The NCAA transgender coverage requires transgender athletes to have undergone testosterone-suppressing therapy for at the least one yr and to check under sure ranges at numerous instances of the yr.
Worldwide Olympic Committee coverage permits every sports activities federation to set its personal guidelines.
For instance, in 2022 swimming regulator FINA stated transgender ladies should have suppressed male puberty earlier than the age of 12 or not have reached a sure stage of male puberty.
The coverage was introduced shortly after College of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender lady who had just lately transitioned, received the NCAA 500-yard freestyle championship, which critics labeled unfair.
Final month, greater than a dozen feminine athletes sued the NCAA for permitting Thomas to compete, claiming the transgender participation coverage violated their civil rights below Title IX, the federal regulation that prohibits discrimination based mostly on intercourse in schooling.