This order, named “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” grants federal agencies such as the Justice and Education departments extensive powers to ensure that organizations receiving federal funding comply with Title IX based on the Trump administration’s perspective, which defines “sex” as the gender assigned at birth.
“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at a signing ceremony.
The move is the latest by the Trump administration to limit the rights of the transgender population.
Former orders have aimed at having the federal government reject the belief that individuals can transition to a different gender than the one assigned at birth.
That has implications for areas including passports and prisons.
Additionally, he has indicated an interest in preventing transgender individuals from serving in the military, proposed an end to federal health insurance and other support for gender-affirming treatments for transgender individuals below 19 years of age, and advocated for limitations on teaching gender-related subjects in schools.
Already, transgender people have sued over several of the policies and are likely to challenge more of them in court.
Civil rights lawyers who are handling the cases have asserted that in some instances, Trump’s orders violate laws adopted by Congress and protections in the Constitution – and that they overstep the authority of the president.
There could be similar questions for this order, for instance: can the president demand that the NCAA change its policies?
NCAA President Charlie Baker told Republican senators in December that the organisation would follow federal law.
The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
The order came a day after three former teammates of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas filed a lawsuit accusing the NCAA, Ivy League, Harvard and their own school, Penn, of conspiring to allow Thomas to compete at conference and national championships.
The lawsuit, which makes similar allegations of that filed last year by Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines and others, alleges the defendants violated Title IX by allowing Thomas to swim “and acted in bad faith.”
Gaines joined Trump for the signing ceremony.
