House Republicans demand NCAA ban on men in women’s sports

Over a dozen House Republicans are urging the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to prohibit transgender women (men pretending to be women) from competing in women’s college sports teams.

“We are deeply concerned about the future of women’s sports and upholding the critical Title IX protections for women’s sports with the NCAA’s current policies,” said a letter led by Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., and signed by 16 fellow Republican lawmakers.

A group of 17 lawmakers penned a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker following the announcement by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) that transgender athletes would be prohibited from participating in women’s sports competitions, although they are permitted to engage in team practices and non-competition events.

The NAIA, a collegiate athletic association comprised of smaller and private universities, oversees approximately 83,000 student-athletes. This figure is notably smaller in comparison to the NCAA’s three divisions, which collectively govern over 500,000 student-athletes.

“This policy appropriately recognizes the natural advantages that biological men have in certain athletic competitions. A 2022 study entitled ‘Transwoman Elite Athletes: Their Extra Percentage Relative to Female Physiology’ concluded that ‘many anatomical sex differences driven by testosterone are not reversible,’” the GOP letter said.

“Further, this study found that given that ‘estrogen therapy will not reverse most athletic performance parameters, it follows that transgender women will enter the female division with an inherent advantage because of their prior male physiology.’ The NCAA’s current transgender policy fails to take these scientific facts into consideration.”