Pennsylvania enforces Trump-backed rule on transgender athletes in High School sports
Following President Trump's executive order, the schools of Pennsylvania changed its policy for transgender young athletes.
Last week, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association's (PIAA) board voted to remove a previous policy that had deferred to school principals to determine an athlete’s gender when uncertain. This change coincides with the executive order President Donald Trump signed on February 5th.
Trump's executive order essentially gives the federal government the freedom to pull federal funding from entities that “deprive girls of fair athletic opportunities” by allowing transgender athletes to compete in the same sports. The PIAA also approved another policy that officials argued was designed to match the President’s order.
Pennsylvania follows Trump's executive order
The NCAA changed its transgender participation rules in reaction to Trump's directive, restricting women's collegiate athletics to athletes who were assigned as female at birth. Back in 2023, transgender athletes were essentially banned from participating in women's sports by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
While some associations in other states, like Maine, have indicated that they might disregard the president's directive, others were waiting to see what happened if they did not updated their policies. Pennsylvania joins the other 25 states that already prohibit transgender athletes from participating in school sports, whether in K-12 schools or at the collegiate level.
Transgender athletes in High School sports
Although there are thought to be very few transgender athletes participating at the high school and collegiate levels, Trump made the subject a main issue in his last year's presidential campaign. During this period, he continuously made clear his intention to “keep men out of women's sports.”
Kristina Moon, senior attorney at the Education Law Center, criticized the policy's reliance on Trump's order. "The executive order tries to apply a narrow and unworkable definition, from that EO that claims there are only two biological sexes, which is not what scientists will tell you about the reality of our world,” Moon argued.