“We unwaveringly support fair competition for our student-athletes,” NAIA President and CEO Jim Kerr said in a news release. “It is critical that NAIA member institutions, academic societies, and student-athletes participate in a fair and respectful environment. With input from our member institutions and the Transgender Task Force, NAIA’s Council of Presidents confirmed the path we should take.”
With 241 member schools, most of them private, and relatively small enrollment, the NAIA eclipses the NCAA in size and influence. NCAA teams and events (including tonight's men's basketball title game) are among the most popular in American sports.
NCAA rules allow transgender athletes to compete if they follow the international sports governing body's guidelines. Historically, the NCAA has generally advocated for inclusion, but has resisted pressure to withdraw championships from states that bar transgender athletes from competing in publicly funded school sports.
“I think so [the NAIA vote] “It seems like the NCAA has the freedom to do the same,” said Anna Beis, research director at queer sports advocacy group Athletes Ally. “I think that sense of generosity is incredibly misguided.”
The rights of trans athletes have been the subject of conservative attacks and scrutiny for years, including at the K-12, college, and Olympic levels. Anti-transgender activists and lawmakers argue that restricting or banning transgender athletes from competing is to protect women's sports under Title IX and keep cisgender women safe. (The science on whether transgender women have a physical advantage over cisgender women is still unknown, and research is ongoing.)
Since 2020, about half of U.S. states have taken steps to ban transgender girls and women, and in some cases boys and men, from publicly funded academic sports in categories that correspond to their gender identity. (Some of these prohibitions have been challenged in court.)
Meanwhile, many international sports governing bodies are grappling with how to enact scientifically sound and fair rules. World Swimming and World Athletics are among the organizations that have significantly restricted the eligibility of transgender girls and women, preventing them from competing if they are experiencing testosterone-driven puberty.
“I'm 110 percent disappointed,” said Mack Beggs, a transgender man and former NAIA wrestler at Life University in Marietta, Georgia. Competing in college “meant the world to me. It not only helped me grow as an athlete, but also as a person.”
The NAIA does not currently track whether there are outtrans athletes among the approximately 83,000 people currently participating in the sport, a spokesperson said. The organization's 2023-24 policy allows transgender and non-binary athletes to compete regardless of their gender during the regular season.
For postseason events, trans athletes who have not received gender-affirming hormone therapy may compete in coed or single-gender sports in the category associated with their assigned sex at birth. Transgender women undergoing gender-affirming hormone therapy can compete in the women's postseason, provided they have already received one year of treatment. Transgender men who take medically prescribed gender-affirming testosterone cannot play on women's teams, but can play on men's teams in the postseason.
Chris Mosier, a transgender rights activist and the first transgender athlete to represent the United States internationally, said recent anti-transgender rhetoric could influence the policies of college sports governing bodies. I mentioned that there is.
“[The] “The NAIA and NCAA, like many other sports organizations, teams, and leagues, are under attack by anti-trans groups and individuals who have made it their life's work to harm transgender people,” Mosier said. I wrote by email. “Current policy changes are based solely on political pressure without a robust process involving experts, athletes and people with lived experience.”
About 40 transgender athletes are believed to compete in NCAA sports, Beiss said. In March, 16 current and former cisgender female college athletes spoke out against the NCAA's eligibility rules for trans athletes, calling for banning trans women from competing in women's events and redistributing awards received by these athletes. filed a lawsuit against the NCAA seeking to do so. The plaintiffs alleged that the NCAA violated Title IX by allowing transgender athletes, such as University of Pennsylvania swimmer Leah Thomas, to compete. Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Division I Championships.
The NCAA recently updated its transgender eligibility policy for January 2022 for swimming championships.
The organization has instituted a sport-specific approach that requires athletes to follow guidelines set by the international governing body of a particular sport. The changes are still being phased in and the NCAA Board of Governors is next scheduled to meet on April 25th.
“College sports are the premier stage for women's sports in the United States, and the NCAA will continue to advance Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women's sports, and ensure that all student-athletes are treated equitably at every NCAA championship.” We guarantee competition,” an NCAA spokesperson said.
During Saturday's Final Four press conference, a reporter from the conservative sports website Outkick asked South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley about her stance on transgender players.
“I think women should play,” Staley said. “If you identify as a woman and want to play sports, or vice versa, you should be able to play.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
