The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics ( NAIA ) released a transgender policy that effectively outlaws transgender athletes in all other women’s sports besides two co-ed sports, competitive cheer and competitive dance. The choice, made by the NAIA’s government of leaders, comes just two weeks after South Carolina mind women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley said she’d allowed transgender people on her staff.
The NAIA is a national organization of participant colleges, which regulates professional sports and organizes national championship competitions. The NAIA is smaller, but, with under 250 part institutions and their around 83, 000 sports. Its users are generally private colleges, many of which are spiritually affiliated, along with a team of public universities.

The fresh trans plan, the NAIA states, reflects the agency’s help of” good and healthy competition opportunities” and adherence to Title IX, a national law that commands gender equity in college sports. In addition, female sports may just have athletes “whose biological sex is adult,” while female sports in the NAIA will continue to be available to all available athletes. The NAIA defines “biological sex” as having “distinguishing characteristics that can be supported by a birth certificate or a signed affidavit.”
The NAIA says that a member school with an athlete who begins “masculinizing hormone therapy” must notify the association’s national office. Such an athlete can, with their school’s approval, continue to practice and work out. However, this athlete will be ineligible to play in games against other schools.
A student at an NAIA school who has lost their ability to play a sport and possibly receive an athletic scholarship could file a lawsuit against the organization. The athlete would likely ask for a restraining order that would allow them to play and assert that their exclusion violates constitutional guarantees for equal protection and due process.
A group of athletes filed lawsuits against the NCAA and the University of Georgia last month for alleged violations of Title IX, the Equal Protection Clause, and the right to bodily privacy, including former All-American swimmer Riley Gaines from the University of Kentucky. The plaintiffs contend that the NCAA unlawfully restricts opportunities for women athletes to compete, win awards, and achieve other accomplishments by allowing transgender athletes ‘ eligibility.
Although there are few transgender college athletes—last fall, of 480, 000 athletes playing at NCAA colleges, only 32 were transgender—the eligibility of transgender athletes remains a source of legal and political dispute. Advocates and opponents dispute the proper application of Title IX and constitutional protections. Advocates claim that the athletes are female and therefore should be eligible, while opponents contend that it is unfair for athletes to compete if their sex was male at birth. The Movement Advancement Project estimates that 24 states forbid transgender students from playing sports that reflect their gender identity.

The eligibility of transgender athletes has not yet been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the Court interpreted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation and sexual identity in Bostock v. Clayton County ( 2021 ).
Justice Neil Gorsuch argued that” an employer who fires a person for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex plays a necessary and undisgussable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.” It remains to be seen whether the Court would make a similar decision in a case involving transgender college athletes.
When Staley was asked if she would allow a transgender athlete to play on her team during a media conference on Saturday, the Gamecocks defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes in the national championship game. ” I’m of the opinion of, if you’re a woman, you should play”, Staley said. You should be able to play if you consider yourself a woman and choose to play sports or vice versa.
In comparison to the NCAA’s$ 1.22 billion in revenue in fiscal 2022, the NAIA reported$ 13.3 million in revenue, according to its most recent tax return. It was a jump from$ 11.9 million the prior year.
An NAIA spokesperson told Sportico on Monday that the organization “understands that legal action being taken to contest the policy is possible.” Our board and board felt that following this policy,” [B]ut,” was the best choice.