US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday, fulfilling a key campaign promise to ban transgender women from competing in women's sports. The act, performed at the White House, was accompanied by a statement from the president: "In a few moments, I will be signing a historic executive order to ban men from competing in women's sports. It's about time." The signing was met with loud applause from the audience present.
The executive order, titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," aims to protect what Trump considers the "tradition of female athletes," ensuring that cisgender women have the opportunity to compete on a level playing field.
"From now on, women's sports will be for women only. We will proudly defend the tradition of female athletes and will not allow men to beat them, injure them, and cheat against our women and our girls," the president assured.
Regarding the upcoming Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, the White House did not offer details on how this order would affect the participation of transgender women. However, Trump hinted that his administration would take steps to prevent their participation.
"We want them to change everything related to the Olympics and this absolutely ridiculous issue, which we shouldn't even be discussing," Trump said. He also revealed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be responsible for communicating the US government's stance to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), requesting that it reject what he considers "transgender madness."
The president also announced that restrictions would be implemented on issuing visas for transgender women athletes, which could make it difficult for certain international teams to participate in competitions in the US. This measure could affect both national and international events involving transgender athletes.
The debate over the participation of transgender women in women's sports competitions has been controversial in recent years. Opponents of these competitions argue that transgender women have an unfair physical advantage, a claim that is not supported by the scientific community.
A 2017 study in Sports Medicine found no consistent evidence of athletic superiority among transgender women, and a more recent 2023 study concluded that many of the physical differences between the sexes are reduced or disappear with gender-affirming hormone therapy. According to this study, although transgender women may have variations in characteristics such as height or limb length, scientists point out that there are also cisgender athletes with tall stature or exceptional physical abilities, and there are no restrictions for them in competitions.
The order signed by Trump is based on an interpretation of Title IX, a landmark federal civil rights law passed in 1972 that prohibits sex discrimination in any school or educational program that receives federal funds. Each administration has the power to interpret this legislation, and in the past, Trump had already issued regulations related to Title IX that limited the definition of sexual harassment and restricted investigations at universities to cases reported to certain officials.
In his first term (2017-2021), Trump had already implemented a regulation that restricted the scope of the definition of sexual harassment and limited the liability of universities in cases of harassment. The Joe Biden administration (2021-2025) revoked this regulation in 2021, seeking to protect victims of sexual abuse on college campuses and establish protections for the rights of LGBTQ+ students. However, the Biden administration did not explicitly address the participation of transgender athletes in sports.
This issue has generated a great deal of controversy, which Trump exploited during his election campaign. In his message, the former president insisted on the importance of keeping men separate from women's sports, a stance that has gained him both supporters and detractors. In the final stretch of the election, a television ad against his rival Kamala Harris showed how Trump used the issue of transgender rights as part of his strategy, pointing out that Harris supported the use of public funds to finance gender reassignment surgeries in prisons.