Trump’s order on trans athletes prompts compliance, defiance and investigations

In the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s executive order preventing males from competing in women’s sports, some sports authorities are jumping on board as others resist.

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), the primary governing body for high school sports there, said it will obey Trump’s executive order. The organization previously had no policy on transgender athletes and state law is agnostic on the issue.

“We are tracking and assessing the law as it evolves and encourage all member schools to do the same,” PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said in a statement Thursday. “PIAA will comply with the law as established.”

The PIAA was among the first athletic bodies to announce it would follow the order, along with the NCAA. 

However, Trump’s Department of Education is investigating the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA), the University of Pennsylvania and San Jose State University over what it sees as Title IX violations regarding transgender-identifying athletes. 

The investigations stem from San Jose State women’s volleyball opponents forfeiting games due to safety concerns regarding Blaire Fleming’s play; Lia Thomas’ former teammates at the University of Pennsylvania facing pressure to accept a male in their locker room; and a Massachusetts girls’ basketball team forfeiting after a male player, Lazuli Clark, injured three female athletes in the first half of one game. 

“I’m deeply grateful to the Department of Education for addressing Title IX violations concerning female athletes with such seriousness,” former University of Pennsylvania women’s swimmer Paula Scanlan said in a DOE release. “As a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer who was forced to compete against and share a locker room with a male athlete, I look forward to them holding accountable the higher education institutions that promoted this.” 

The MIAA is the lone high school sports body in the country that lets boys compete in many girls’ sports, in addition to transgender-identifying athletes, due to a 1979 state Supreme Judicial Court interpretation of its Equal Rights Amendment. Under the law, schools must allow boys to compete on girls’ teams where no equivalent boys’ sport is offered. 

As a result, males have won Massachusetts state championships in girls’ field hockey, girls’ basketball, girls’ gymnastics and girls’ track, along with Most Valuable Player awards in sports like girls’ volleyball and field hockey. 

However, some blue states are refusing to change policies to comply with Trump’s order. 

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, believes Trump’s decree is unconstitutional, according to Patch.com, leaving the door open for a transgender-identifying athlete to win a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) girls’ track state title next Friday. 

Conard High senior Lizzy Bidwell has won the high jump at every meet this season and won the All-New England championship meet last winter. Bidwell, a biological male, also won the triple jump at states last spring and helped Conard win a team state championship in the spring 2023 season. 

Bidwell finished second in the high jump at the CIAC Class LL state championship meet last winter, falling to a girl who is not competing in girls’ track this season. 

Photo credit: @POTUS (X.com)