A group of House Republicans urged the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) to ban transgender-identifying male athletes from competing in women’s sports, a week after a smaller collegiate athletics organization did so.
Representative Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) and 16 of her colleagues wrote a letter on Monday, demanding that NCAA president Charlie Baker uphold “the critical Title IX protections for women’s sports” by overriding its current transgender student-athlete rules. The NCAA’s current policy allows the national governing body of each individual sport to determine whether male student-athletes can participate against females in that sport.
The lawmakers’ request comes after the Council of Presidents of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) on April 8 unanimously approved a policy restricting the female division to biological females and excluding those who identify as female. NAIA’s decision impacts roughly 250 small colleges and universities across the U.S.
NAIA’s policy, Tenney wrote, “appropriately recognizes the natural advantages that biological men have in certain athletic competitions.” She cited a 2022 study that concluded “many anatomical sex differences driven by testosterone are not reversible” and found that “estrogen therapy will not reverse most athletic performance parameters.” Following this logic, transgender-identifying men have a significantly greater advantage on the sports field compared to their female counterparts.
“The NCAA’s current transgender policy fails to take these scientific facts into consideration,” Tenney said.
The congresswoman also referred to a recent statement made by University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, who said transgender men should be allowed to participate in women’s sports.
“I’m of the opinion of, if you’re a woman you should play. If you consider yourself a woman, and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play,” Staley said ahead of her team’s NCAA Tournament championship game on April 6.
Tenney disagreed with this statement, as it “ignores the biological facts and would harm female athletes throughout NCAA-affiliated schools,” she wrote.
“As such, we urge the NCAA to reconsider its current policy that allows biological males to deprive women of a fair opportunity to compete and achieve athletic success,” Tenney added, referencing University of Pennsylvania male swimmer Lia Thomas as an example of such unfairness. “This cannot be allowed to ever happen again. The NCAA must follow the NAIA’s lead and prohibit biological males from competing in women’s sports.”
Despite facing pushback, the NCAA defended its current policies following the NAIA decision.
“College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and the NCAA will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition for all student-athletes in all NCAA championships,” the NCAA told CBS Sports earlier this month.