FIRST ON FOX: Just one day after Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., pushed through the House of Representatives the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act, he already plans to introduce a resolution to further address the issue of trans athletes in women’s sports. .
Steube will introduce a joint resolution with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., calling on the NCAA to revoke the eligibility of all trans athletes who compete as women. It would also call on the NCAA to create new policies that would ban any future trans-identified men from competing as women, and pressure all of its member conferences to do the same, according to a draft of the legislation obtained by Pak Gazette Digital.
Unlike the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act, this resolution would directly address the issue of trans inclusion at the college level and would also affect schools that do not receive federal funding.
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Riley Gaines speaks at a press conference following the House vote on the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act at the US Capitol on January 14, 2025. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Steube’s previous bill only states that it is a violation of Title IX for federally funded educational programs or activities to operate, sponsor, or facilitate sports programs or activities that allow males to participate in programs or activities designed for women. or girls. .
But this ruling could extend to private institutions that compete in the NCAA. The issue of trans inclusion at the women’s collegiate level has been a dominant political issue during the Biden administration, highlighted by controversies involving trans swimmer Lia Thomas in 2022 and trans volleyball player Blaire Fleming in 2024.
The NCAA has enabled and protected trans athletes in women’s sports with its current policies.
NCAA President Charlie Baker faced questions and criticism from Republican lawmakers over these policies during a congressional hearing on December 17. He repeatedly cited federal law and recent federal court rulings that have allowed it.
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On President Biden’s first day in office, he issued an executive order to allow and protect trans inclusion in women’s sports. And during the December hearing, Baker referenced “five lawsuits in the last 18 months” that have allowed trans athletes to compete against biological women. However, there has been no ruling that has explicitly ordered the NCAA to allow trans athletes to compete against women or share women’s locker rooms.
If Steube’s bill becomes law, Baker and the NCAA will be tasked with enforcing the new mandates, just as he claimed he was enforcing the old ones under Biden.
One of the groups that lobbied hard for this resolution was Concerned Women for America (CWA), which has taken on the issue of trans athletes competing against women at the NCAA level as a central mission throughout Biden’s term.
Current CWA legislative strategist and former NCAA women’s athlete Macy Petty told Pak Gazette Digital that she attempted to deliver a letter on this issue to NCAA Board of Governors Chair Dr. Linda Livingstone. but she was fired and that Livingstone “didn’t even look at me.” the eye.”
“The NCAA continues to fail in its responsibility to protect female athletes and is the primary leader in facilitating this discrimination. They have demonstrated a complete disregard for the safety and dignity of the athletes they govern,” Petty said.
The NCAA may soon have to respond to a new set of rules once the Trump administration begins.
Representative Greg Steube conducts a television interview in front of the US Capitol on April 23, 2020. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
President-elect Trump himself promised to ban trans athletes from women’s sports as president during his 2024 campaign, and it became one of the key issues for him and other Republicans in his landslide November victory.
The issue became so prominent that the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act was the top priority of the 119th Congress and passed the House with unanimous support from Republicans and even two Democrats.
With a Republican majority also in the Senate, both of Steube’s proposals could pass during Trump’s first year in office.
