(The Center Square) — New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella has joined more than two dozen Republican AGs in urging the NCAA to strip records, titles and medals from transgender individuals who competed in women’s college sports.
In a letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association President Charlie Baker, the AGs called on the organization to “restore to female athletes all championships, titles, wins, awards, records, and other recognitions that were wrongfully awarded to male athletes competing in NCAA women’s category events.”
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“The policies that were created, promoted, and encouraged by the Biden administration and the NCAA not only enabled biological men to compete against women in sporting events across the country, but denied deserving women the recognition they had earned,” the AGs, led by Mississippi’s Lynn Fitch, wrote to Baker.
The attorneys general called on the college sports governing body to create a plan “to restore all appropriate recognitions to the women athletes who were wrongfully denied all that they earned.”
“With more than 500,000 college athletes and approximately 1,100 member schools in all 50 states, the NCAA has the opportunity and privilege to impact the lives of so many student athletes in a positive or negative way,” the AGs wrote. “There is no doubt that the women forced to compete against biological males in female events were impacted negatively and unfairly disadvantaged.”
The letter cited President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order which barred federal funding for educational institutions that allow males to compete on women’s or girls sports teams. Trump has vowed to cut off funding to states that don’t comply with the directive.
Formella, who serves as president of the National Association of Attorneys General, issued a statement saying the letter “reflects the same core principle at the heart of New Hampshire’s ongoing defense of the Granite State’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act: that fairness in women’s sports must be preserved.
“We are standing up for female athletes to ensure their opportunities and achievements are protected under the law, consistent with the original intent of Title IX,” Formella’s office said.
The letter comes as New Hampshire conservatives are fuming over Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s veto of a “bathroom bill” that would have required the separation of bathrooms, locker rooms, sports and correctional facilities by biological sex. Ayotte said the Republican-approved legislation was “overly broad and impractical to enforce” and could lead to costly lawsuits for the state government.
“While I believe that the legislature should address this serious issue, it must be done in a thoughtful and narrow way that protects the privacy, safety and rights of all New Hampshire citizens,” Ayotte said.
Two male students identifying as female are challenging a 2024 law signed by then Republican Gov. Chris Sununu that bars biological males from participating in girls’ sports in Grades 5 through 12. A U.S. District Court judge has temporarily blocked the state from enforcing the law. The state has appealed the ruling.
A March poll released by the University of New Hampshire found 71% of Granite Staters support policies aimed at keeping males who identify as women out of women’s sports. Only 21% oppose such policies, pollsters found.