The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) has made a major change to their LGBTQ+ protocols after Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women's sport teams.
The newly sworn-in right-wing politician declared the news from the White House on Wednesday (5 Feb), vowing to deny schools that allow such a practice from receiving any federal funding.
Trump's latest executive order
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"We will defend the proud tradition of female athletes," 78-year-old Trump announced on Wednesday, discussing his new ban.
"From now on, women’s sports will be only for women. The war on women’s sports is over."
As part of his controversial new policy, the Republican leader emphasised that there would henceforth be a 'sweeping effort to reclaim our culture and our laws'.
Trump added that, as part of his mission, he'd direct the Education Department to inform schools that continuing to allow transgender athletes to compete would put them in violation of the federal law banning sex discrimination, known as Title IX.
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In his controversial new announcement, the father-of-five also threatened that schools receiving taxpayer dollars caught letting 'men take over women's sports teams or invade your locker rooms' would be investigated.
"There will be no federal funding. So this will effectively end the attack on female athletes."
Universities make major change
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Following Trump's new ban, the NCAA have now changed its participation policy for transgender athletes, meaning only athletes assigned female at birth will be permitted to compete in women's sports.
The move was made on Thursday - a day after the executive order was signed - and became effective immediately.
As such, regardless of previous eligibility criteria, all athletes under the organisation, will have to abide by the new transgender policy.
The NCAA is the largest governing body for college athletics in America, with more than 1,200 schools and a surplus of 500,000+ athletes.
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Charlie Baker - president of the organisation - has since told press in a statement (as per The Guardian): "We strongly believe that clear, consistent and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions.
"To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard."
Baker emphasised, however, that the NCAA will still permit athletes assigned male at birth to practice with women’s teams, and receive appropriate medical care.
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He added that the organisation still vows to 'protect, support and enhance the mental and physical health of student-athletes'.
"This national standard brings much-needed clarity as we modernise college sports for today’s student-athletes."
Other LGBTQ+ policies introduced by the Trump-Vance administration
Since making his inaugural address last month (20 Jan), Trump has put several other executive orders into place that directly affect LGBTQ+ citizens of the US.
Firstly, he ruled the government would recognise 'only two genders' - male and female - adding these are 'not changeable', before pledging to bring to an end 'wasteful' government programmes which promote diversity and inclusivity.
He argued that these promises would form of 'defending women from gender ideology extremism'.
In the days that followed, the politician made the decision to revoke the 1965 Equal Employment Opportunity Act - which previously promoted opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people, as well as other underrepresented groups within society.
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And his newly-appointed Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, went on to remove the opportunity for transgender and non-binary individuals to define their gender as 'X' on passport application forms.
Days later, the same department banned any consular post from flying any flag other that the official United States of America flag - mentioning the Gay Pride and Black Lives Matter flags in particular.
The latest sport-related order signed by Trump was done so exactly a week after he vowed to 'protect kids from chemical and surgical mutilation' - a swipe against gender transitions treatments and procedures for individuals under 19.
On Wednesday (29 Jan), this policy declared: "It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called 'transition' of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures."
The order emphasised that when referring to 'pediatric' (or 'paediatric' in the UK), this relates to the 'medical aid of a child', and when discussing 'chemical and surgical mutilation', this includes treatments such as puberty blockers, hormones like oestrogen or testosterone, and surgery.
Topics: Donald Trump, LGBTQ, LGBTQ+, News, Politics, US News
Rhianna Benson