College athletic association bans transgender athletes from women's sports
A college sports association for smaller institutions banned male athletes who identify as transgender from participating in women’s sports.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics made the announcement on Monday after its Council of Presidents approved the proposed policy by a 20-0 vote, according to CBS Sports.
While the new NAIA policy allows all eligible student-athletes to participate in male sports, it limits women’s sports to eligible student-athletes whose biological sex is female.
NAIA President Jim Carr told CBS Sports that the new policy promotes fairness.
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”We know there are a lot of different opinions out there,” Carr said. “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.”
”It’s important to know that the male sports are open to anyone,” Carr added.
The new policy doesn’t apply to scrimmages, practices, or other team activities.
Former University of Kentucky Kaitlynn Wheeler told Fox News that the decision is “huge,” adding that “all eyes are on the NCAA right now.”
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”The NAIA took the bold first move here, and that’s what real leadership looks like,” Wheeler said. “They did their research. They made the right call. Unlike the NCAA who has previously admitted that they haven’t done enough research on the subject, which frankly, I don’t think opening a biology textbook is really that hard.”