The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced a ban on transgender athletes from playing in women’s sports.
“The NAIA supports fair and safe competition opportunities for all student-athletes. Title IX ensures there are separate and equal opportunities for female athletes. As a result, the NAIA offers separate categories of competition in all sports except for competitive cheer and competitive dance, which are both co-ed,” its policy reads.
“Only NAIA student-athletes whose biological sex* is female may participate in NAIA-sponsored female sports,” it adds.
The asterisk leads to a statement from an NAIA, which reads, “For the sake of this policy, biological sex is defined by distinguishing characteristics and can be supported by birth certificate or signed affidavit. While rare, there have been cases where the sex assigned at birth does not match the biological sex, which led to the use of biological sex in this document.”
The new policy takes effect August 1, 2024.
NAIA President Jim Carr told CBS Sports, “We know there are a lot of different opinions out there. For us, we believed our first responsibility was to create fairness and competition in the NAIA. … We also think it aligns with the reasons Title IX was created. You’re allowed to have separate but equal opportunities for women to compete.”
Some have called for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to take similar action.
Heritage Foundation founder Kevin Roberts wrote on X, “A win for common sense. Your move, @NCAA.”
“Common sense prevails today. It’s more than time for the @ncaa to do the same #protectwomenssports,” Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears similarly wrote.
