American swimmer Lia Thomas, the primary overtly transgender lady to win a NCAA Division I Championship (Credit score: X)
The vote by the affiliation’s Council of Presidents to ban transgender athletes from competing in any collegiate sporting occasions was 20-0, ESPN reported.
The Nationwide Affiliation of Intercollegiate Athletics on Monday banned transgender girls from competing in girls’s sports activities, taking a extra hardline stance than different athletic our bodies that permit trans athletes to compete based mostly on testosterone ranges.
The NAIA, representing principally small schools, is much less influential than the bigger Nationwide Collegiate Athletic Affiliation (NCAA) however its resolution carries some political weight within the wider U.S. debate about transgender rights.
“Solely NAIA student-athletes whose organic intercourse is feminine might take part in NAIA-sponsored feminine sports activities,” the affiliation stated in its coverage, opens new tab.
Feminine athletes who’ve begun masculinizing hormone remedy might take part in inside exercises, practices and crew actions however are banned from exterior competitors. Any eligible athlete might take part in males’s sports activities, the coverage stated.
The vote by the affiliation’s Council of Presidents was 20-0, ESPN reported.
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Marketing campaign, which advocates for LGBTQ rights, criticized the coverage as a “cowardly resolution that permits discrimination.”
The NAIA has 83,000 athletes at 250 colleges whereas NCAA has greater than 500,000 athletes at 1,100 member colleges, in response to their respective web sites.
The NCAA transgender coverage, opens new tab requires transgender athletes to have undergone testosterone suppression therapy for a minimum of one 12 months and to check beneath sure ranges at totally different instances of the 12 months.
The Worldwide Olympic Committee coverage, opens new tab permits every sporting federation to set its personal rules.
For instance, in 2022, the swimming regulator FINA stated transgender girls should have suppressed male puberty earlier than age 12 or should not have reached a sure stage of male puberty.
That coverage was introduced shortly after College of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender lady who had not too long ago transitioned, gained the NCAA 500-yard freestyle championship, which critics labeled unfair.
Final month, greater than a dozen feminine athletes sued the NCAA for permitting Thomas to compete, alleging the transgender participation coverage violated their civil rights beneath Title IX, the federal regulation banning discrimination based mostly on intercourse in schooling.
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Reuters)
