SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines and about two dozen demonstrators outside an NCAA convention on Thursday protested the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports and threatened the association with legal action if it didn’t change its policy.
Gaines competed in last year’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships with Penn’s Leah Thomas, who became the first transgender woman to win a national title (women’s 500-yard freestyle). She also placed fifth in the 200 m freestyle, tying with Gaines.
“Today, we intend to personally ask the NCAA to stop discrimination against female athletes by handing them a petition that we have collected nearly 10,000 signatures in just a couple of days,” Gaines said, launching over an hour of speeches that attracted the attention of a few onlookers and a handful of quiet opponents of the protest.
This topic has divided the US over the past few years, with critics saying transgender athletes have an advantage over cisgender women in competition. Eighteen states have passed laws banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s high school sports; Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that West Virginia’s ban is constitutional and can remain in place.
The NCAA has allowed transgender athletes to compete since 2010.
The Transgender Student Athlete Participation Policy was updated a year ago, taking a per-sport approach that aligns the NCAA with the US Olympic Committees and International Olympic Committees.
Full implementation of the policy was scheduled to be in place by August, but the NCAA Board of Governors this week approved a recommendation to delay this until the 2023-24 school year “to address operational considerations.”
NCAA leadership says the stated goal of policy development is not whether transgender athletes will be included, but how.
“We want to create a fair, welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone (athletes),” Ivy League chief executive Robin Harris told the convention during this week’s session on the topic. Harris said the policy on transgender athletes is no different from other eligibility requirements.
“They play by the rules,” NCAA Director of Inclusion Jean Merrill said during the session.
Schuyler Bailar, a transgender man who switched from the women’s swim team to the men’s while attending Harvard, said he believes the NCAA is doing its best to make its policies inclusive, fair and effective. The problem is that standards are not static.
“It’s not so easy. I think they are constantly moving, constantly evolving. And justice is also constantly evolving the more we learn about bodies, biology and humans, and the more we understand diversity, equality and inclusiveness,” Beilar said at the convention.
At the protest, Freedom Defense Alliance attorney Christiane Kiefer said the NCAA is violating Title IX, the landmark gender equality legislation passed in 1972, and legal action against the NCAA can take several forms.
“So I think it might look like a federal lawsuit against the NCAA,” she said. “I think it might look like a Title IX complaint. And I think it might look like even universities are starting to resist the NCAA and say, “Hey, we have a legal obligation to protect fair sports opportunities for female athletes, and if we can’t do that, you kind of oblige.” our hands and preventing us from meeting our legal obligations to female athletes in our schools.”
The NCAA has yet to take a stand against states that have banned transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. The NCAA has previously banned states from holding their championships due to the use of Confederate symbols or because of laws that it believes discriminate against LGBT people.
Baylar said it would be helpful if the NCAA took a similar stance on the issue.
“I also know that the jurisdiction of the NCAA is for college athletics, not youth sports. And many of these laws concern children’s sports. So I understand the discrepancy there,” he said. “But I mean, if you ask me if I want more transgender support? The answer is: absolutely yes.
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