On Feb. 5, President Trump signed an executive order entitled “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports Executive Order” — a directive aimed at preventing transgender athletes from playing in women’s sports nationwide.
This marks the fourth executive order targeting transgender people that Trump has passed since taking office in Jan., and the effects are already visible in sports organizations that face increasing pressure to enforce restrictions on transgender athletes.
During the executive order’s signing ceremony, Trump said that the International Olympic Committee should “change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject.”
Some organizations —- notably the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which regulates the majority of Carleton’s varsity sports —- have already begun to adapt their policies to fit the new measure.
In an announcement one day after the executive order was signed, the NCAA said that their Board of Governors voted to update their participation policy so that only athletes assigned female at birth could compete in women’s sports. They said that they would continue to allow athletes assigned male at birth to practice with women’s teams, but that they would not be permitted to compete in the women’s division.
Megan Cablk ’25, a student on the Carleton women’s soccer team, explained that this might seem like a way for transgender students to participate, but that it is still limiting.
“While this looks like a loophole to allow participation that people should be happy with, this drastically limits an athlete’s experience in the program,” she said, “For most of us, competition is where we really flourish, competition days are where we have the most bonding opportunities.”
The executive order only focused on women’s division sports and did not affect men’s division sports. The NCAA clarified that athletes of any biological sex could continue to participate in men’s sports.
All of Carleton’s varsity teams, except for ultimate frisbee, compete in leagues regulated by the NCAA; as a result, they are required to comply with the NCAA’s rules, including their updated participation policy.
In a statement to the Carletonian, Athletic Director and Chair of Physical Education, Athletics and Recreation (PEAR) Heidi Jaynes, Director of Sport Clubs Aaron Chaput and Director of Recreation Mikki Showers said, “The changes directly impact our varsity sports programs because we are a member of the NCAA and must follow their policies.” They explained that PEAR is in the process of updating its policy on including transgender students to align with NCAA standards.
The school’s previous policy, which will now be altered due to the changes in the NCAA policy, was created by the PEAR Equity Committee in 2014 when only three other Division III policies had been created in the NCAA.
Jaynes, Chaput and Showers explained that PEAR partnered with the Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC) and the title IX office to review the policy annually. Carleton was the first school to define a policy on transgender inclusion out of the schools participating in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) division, enabling Carleton to help other schools in the MIAC develop their own policies, as well as help MIAC develop their own conference-wide transgender policy. Now, all of these policies require alteration as a result of the NCAA policy change.
Cablk said she was disappointed that the executive order was passed and the NCAA policy was changed without input from individual institutions or advocates.
“Personally, I hope that with enough pushback from the athletics community, the policy can be overturned, but as long as the federal government continues down this path of targeting transgender folks, that does not look like a possibility,” she said.
A notable exception to varsity sports at Carleton is ultimate frisbee, which is not a sport regulated by the NCAA, so the executive order does not directly affect them.
One Syzygy captain, Clara Gale ’25, said, “The ultimate community has had its own struggles with incorporating trans athletes, but generally, it is a different conversation because the ultimate community tends to be more liberal. We are lucky to be able to continue to include trans athletes on our team and in the college ultimate community at large.”
Jaynes, Chaput and Showers anticipate that club sports, as well as recreational and intramural activities, will continue to be open to participants on the basis of their gender identity, rather than their biological sex.
The current Carleton policy regarding transgender athletes participating in club sports says that transgender athletes should reach out to the Director of Sport Clubs, Aaron Chaput. Chaput would thencontact the National Governing Body (NGB) of the club sport to determine the policy of that particular sport. If the sport’s NGB does not hold a policy, the Carleton policy says that students can participate on the basis of their gender identity.
In terms of intramural sports and other campus recreation, the Carleton policy follows the “General, Value, and Action Statements for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” upheld by the National Intramural Recreation Sports Association (NIRSA), which says that transgender athletes may participate in intramural sports and recreation in accordance with their gender identity.
“We will continue to do all [we] can to make all students feel welcome, that they belong, and that they are a part of something by offering opportunities and activities for all,” Jaynes, Chaput and Showers shared in a statement to the Carletonian.
Jonathan Gonzales, the Director of the GSC, voiced concerns about the ways in which the executive order would directly affect transgender students at Carleton and nationally.
“Banning trans women from women’s sports is discrimination. Taking away access to sports is harmful to the trans community because of the joy and camaraderie that sports, especially team sports, brings,” Gonzales said.
Cablk also said her concerns about the influence of the executive order on women’s sports. “It’s really disappointing to see athletics become the battleground for so much hate. The rhetoric of the policy is centered around protecting women in sports, but I don’t see excluding some women from participating in the sports they love in a way they feel safe doing as protecting at all.”
Gonzales encouraged transgender Carleton students to utilize the GSC as a resource as transgender rights continue to be diminished under the Trump administration.
“I want to be sure that trans students can access the information and resources that they need through the GSC and other departments like [Student Health and Counseling] who have a staff that is knowledgeable about LGBTQIA+ resources and support. The GSC will continue to create opportunities for students to be in community and experience queer and trans joy.”