California, Maine and Minnesota may be resisting President Trump’s executive order on single-sex female sports, but not New Hampshire and Wisconsin.
The federal Department of Education congratulated both states after their high school athletic associations revised their transgender-eligibility policies to prohibit biological males who identify as female in girls’ scholastic sports.
“We applaud these entities for recognizing President Trump’s leadership in protecting women and girls from biological male competitors, and for recognizing that this is the appropriate and correct understanding of Title IX, said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, in a Thursday statement. “We expect other interscholastic athletic associations will follow suit immediately.”
The National Collegiate Athletic Association changed its policy Feb. 6 to limit competition in women’s sports “to student-athletes assigned female at birth only,” but the update applies only to collegiate sports.
High school sports are governed primarily by state organizations like the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, which voted Wednesday to abandon its policy allowing students to compete based on gender identity.
Stephanie Hauser, WIAA executive director, said that the board affirmed its “compliance with federal directives that only students designated as females at birth will be allowed to participate in girls competition,” a reference to Mr. Trump’s Feb. 5 order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
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“Working in consultation with legal counsel, our Board updated this policy to ensure clarity is provided to our membership as they work to comply with new federal guidance from the White House,” she said in a statement.
Wisconsin came close last year to enacting a Save Women’s Sports bill. Both Republican-controlled houses of the legislature passed the measure, but it was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
New Hampshire does have such a law. In July, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed a bill passed by the Republican-led legislature barring biological boys from girls’ sports in grades 5-12.
The NHIAA told school districts after the law’s passage that they “need to follow state and federal law when making gender-based eligibility determinations,” but did not formally suspend its rule allowing students to compete based on gender identity until after Mr. Trump issued his order.
“In light of these developments, the NHIAA has consulted with legal counsel, and determined that it would be prudent to further clarify the NHIAA’s requirements,” said the association in a Feb. 14 statement, adding that the decision “reflects what has been the NHIAA’s policy since the enactment” of the state law.
The federal Education Department previously launched an investigation into the California Interscholastic Federation and the Minnesota State High School League after they indicated they would refuse to comply with the president’s order.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, has vowed to defy the executive order, prompting Mr. Trump to warn that Maine could lose federal funds.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.