NAIA bans all transgender women from women's sports

“We steadfastly support fair competition for our student-athletes,” NAIA President and CEO Jim Carr said in a news release. “It is critical that NAIA member institutions, conferences and student-athletes participate in an environment that is equitable and respectful. With the contributions of our member institutions and the Transgender Task Force, the NAIA Council of Presidents has affirmed our path forward.”

With 241 member schools, most of them private schools with relatively small enrollments, the NAIA is overshadowed in size and influence by the NCAA, whose teams and events, including tonight's men's basketball title game, are among the most popular in American sports.

NCAA rules allow transgender athletes to compete if they follow the guidelines of their international sports federations. In the past, the NCAA has generally advocated for inclusion but has resisted pressure to pull championship events from states that ban transgender athletes from participating in publicly funded school sports.

“I think that [the NAIA vote] gives the feeling that the NCAA has the latitude to do the same,” said Anna Baeth, research director at queer sports advocacy group Athlete Ally. “I think that sense of latitude would be incredibly misguided.”

Trans athletes' rights have long been the subject of conservative attacks and scrutiny, including at the K-12, college and Olympic levels. Anti-transgender activists and lawmakers argue that restricting or banning transgender athletes from competing is a matter of protecting women's sports under Title IX and the safety of cisgender women. (The science on what physical advantages transgender women may have over cisgender women is unclear and research is ongoing.)

Since 2020, about half of U.S. states have enacted measures barring transgender girls and women — and sometimes boys and men — from publicly funded school sports in the categories that correspond to their gender identity. (Some of these bans are being challenged in court.)

Many international sports associations are now addressing the question of how scientifically sound and fair rules can be introduced. World Aquatics and World Athletics are among the groups that have severely restricted the eligibility of transgender girls and women, barring them from competition if they have experienced testosterone-induced puberty.

“I’m 110 percent disappointed,” said Mack Beggs, a transgender man and former NAIA wrestler at Life University in Marietta, Georgia. Attending college, he said, “means the world. “Not only has it made me grow as an athlete, it has made me grow as a person.”

The NAIA does not track whether out trans athletes are currently among the approximately 83,000 participating in its sports, a spokesman said. The organization's 2023-24 policy allows trans and non-binary athletes to compete in any gender category during the regular season.

In postseason events, trans athletes who are not receiving gender-affirming hormone treatment may compete in mixed sports or gender-conclusive sports in the category assigned to their sex assigned at birth. Transgender women receiving gender-confirming hormone treatment can compete in the women's category in the postseason, provided they have already received treatment for a year. Transgender men who take doctor-prescribed gender-affirming testosterone are not allowed to compete on women's teams, but can compete on men's teams in the postseason.

Chris Mosier, a transgender activist and the first out transgender athlete to represent the United States in international competition, pointed to recent anti-trans rhetoric as a possible influence on college sports association policies.

“[The] The NAIA and NCAA, along with many other sports organizations, teams and leagues, have been attacked by anti-trans groups and individuals who have made it their life's mission to harm transgender people,” Mosier wrote in an email. “A policy change at this time without a solid process to engage experts, athletes and people with lived experience is based solely on political pressure.”

About 40 of our transgender athletes are expected to compete in NCAA sports, Baeth said. In March, 16 current and former cisgender college athletes filed a lawsuit against the NCAA over its eligibility policies for trans athletes, demanding that the organization ban trans women from competing in women's competition and redistribute any recognition those athletes received. The plaintiffs alleged that the NCAA violated Title IX by allowing trans athletes like University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas to compete. Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Division I Championships.

The NCAA last updated its transgender eligibility policy in January 2022 ahead of the swimming championships.

The organization has adopted a sport approach that requires athletes to adhere to the guidelines set by the international governing body of their respective sport. This change will be introduced gradually. The next meeting of the NCAA Board of Governors is scheduled to take place on April 25.

“College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and the NCAA will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports, and ensure fair competition for all student-athletes at all NCAA championships,” an NCAA spokesperson said.

During a Final Four press conference on Saturday, a reporter from Outkick, a conservative sports website, asked South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley about her stance on transgender athletes.

“I believe you should play as a woman,” Staley said. “If you consider yourself a woman and want to exercise, or vice versa, you should be able to exercise.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.