Sports are a significant part of the lives of millions of American children, with 54.1% of children ages 6-17 having participated in sports in the last 12 months as of 2020 (“Number 441”). Sports are a positive force in the childhoods of the vast majority of Americans. And yet, today, the government is hell-bent on robbing transgender little girls of the joy of participating in sports at even an elementary level, even though transgender kids are perhaps the group that needs stability and the joy of sports the most, as transgender people are at much higher risk of depression or suicide, as is with 42% of transgender
adults report having attempted suicide a least once in their life, 81% have considered it, and 56% have self-harmed (Williams Institute). In February of 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order entitled "Keeping men out of women's sports," which barred the participation of transgender women and girls in women's sports in the K-12 and collegiate levels, as well as pressuring the International Olympic Committee and the NCAA to adopt the same policy (Lavigne). Trump said, "We will not allow men to beat up, injure, and cheat our women and our girls. From now on, women's sports will be only for women." (Lavigne) He presents
this claim as though there is an epidemic of mass amounts of trans girls beating up cis women in sports all over the country, when in fact, there are no verified cases of this happening even once. The population of trans girls in sports is minuscule, with states like Utah, Kentucky, and Ohio reporting that each only has one competing transgender woman athlete in their entire state (Lavigne). Evidently, this does not succeed in "protecting girls" as it claims to, only succeeding in singling out the very few trans athletes there are in the country, alienating an already struggling population, and robbing them of the joy of sports.
"It's using this broad civil rights law as a weapon and turning it on its head to require discrimination against an already vulnerable group of students."
As of today, transgender women's participation in women's sports is outlawed in any federally funded educational institution. The Trump administration has made attempts to cut federal funding to any institution that is found to have violated this rule. However, the direct effects of Trump's executive order vary widely from state to state, as according to their independent laws and many states, such as Illinois and California, have sued the Trump Administration in opposition to this executive order. This is an ongoing issue facing legislation today. (Lavigne)