The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), a collegiate governing body overseeing mostly small college athletics across the United States has issued a mandate banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
The unanimous ruling by way of a 20-0 vote came after a widespread survey back in December indicated strong support for the phobic-laden ban that will ban all transgender athletes from any NAIA competition. Previously, the NAIA had prohibited transgender athletes from postseason competitions within the conference.
“We know there are a lot of different opinions out there,” NAIA president Jim Carr told CBS Sports. “For us, we believed our first responsibility was to create fairness and competition in the NAIA. … We also think it aligns with the reasons Title IX was created. You’re allowed to have separate but equal opportunities for women to compete.”
The NAIA currently has 241 membership institutions with 80 percent of those being private schools. According to the Pew Research Center, 1.6% of U.S. adults are transgender or nonbinary while the NAIA has no way of knowing which athletes are transgender according to Carr. So essentially, this is a needless policy of political posturing to appeal to transphobes across the county.
Here’s the full policy below:
Student-athletes may participate in NAIA competition in accordance with the following conditions:
A. Participation by students in sports designated as male by the NAIA: All eligible NAIA student-athletes may participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports.
B. Participation by students in sports designated as female by the NAIA: Only NAIA student-athletes whose biological sex is female may participate in NAIA-sponsored female sports. They may participate under the following conditions:
- A student who has not begun any masculinizing hormone therapy may participate without limitation.
- A student who has begun masculinizing hormone therapy may participate in:
a. All activities that are internal to the institution (does not include external competition), including workouts, practices, and team activities. Such participation is at the discretion of the NAIA member institution where the student is enrolled; and
b. External competition that is not a countable contest as defined by the NAIA (per NAC Policy Article XXV, Section A, Item 12). Such participation is at the discretion of the NAIA member institution where the student is enrolled.
An NAIA institution that has a student-athlete who has begun masculinizing hormone therapy must notify the NAIA national office. The national office will take the necessary steps to provide appropriate privacy protections.
This policy will be subject to review in light of any legal, scientific, or medical developments.
Although the policy doesn’t pertain to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), in 2022 the NCAA ruled that national governing bodies of each sport would determine transgender participation policies. Furthermore, according to the NCAA, the 2022 policy falls in line with the International Olympic Committee and its policies regarding transgender athletes.