Yesterday, President Donald Trump took decisive action to protect women’s sports by signing an executive order ensuring that only biological females compete in female athletic competitions. This marks a significant victory for fairness, safety, and the integrity of girls’ sports in Pennsylvania and across the nation.
However, while this executive order is a critical step forward, it is not the final battle. Lasting legislative solutions and school board-level policies are needed to ensure these protections are in permanently enshrined in law.
A Critical Step for Fairness and Safety
Jeremy Samek, Senior Counsel at the Independence Law Center, said “for years, female athletes have faced an uphill battle against a hostile government that ignored biological reality, placing girls in an unsafe and unfair environment, but the Independence Law Center has been busy helping over a dozen Pennsylvania schools protect women’s sports anyway. The executive order restores the intent of Title IX, which was designed to ensure equal opportunities for women and girls in education and athletics. More still needs to be done.”
“President Trump’s executive order is a victory for fairness, safety, and the fundamental rights of women and girls in Pennsylvania and across the nation. For too long, policies have ignored biological reality, sidelining female athletes and denying them the opportunities Title IX was designed to protect,” said Michael Geer, PA Family Institute President.
“We owe a debt of gratitude as well to the young women, like Lily Williams and Alexis Lightcap – who stood up for fairness and privacy for women and girls at their schools here in Pennsylvania at a time when it wasn’t so popular — enduring criticism and antagonism to fight for what is right. It was our honor to stand beside them,” added Geer.
The executive order directs the U.S. Department of Education to enforce Title IX protections by ensuring that athletic opportunities for women remain exclusively for biological females. Additionally, it prohibits federal funding for schools that violate these protections by allowing men to compete in women’s sports.
Enforcement of the executive order has already begun. The U.S. Department of Education has launched investigations into San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for suspected Title IX violations. The administration has made it clear that schools failing to protect female athletes will be held accountable.
Support for Clear and Consistent Standards
The need for a consistent, nationwide approach to this issue has never been clearer. According to a Parents Defending Education poll, 78% of parents oppose biological males competing in girls’ sports. That 78% goes beyond political party affiliation and ethnicity – including 86% Republican, 80% Independent, 60% Democrat; with 75% white, 82% black, 88% Asian, and 83% Hispanic.
Randall Wenger, Chief Counsel at the Independence Law Center, emphasized the importance of clear, enforceable guidelines. “President Trump’s executive order provides much-needed clarity and consistency for Pennsylvania schools and school boards, ensuring that eligibility standards for women’s sports are based on biological reality, not ideology. We encourage local school boards across Pennsylvania to align their policies with this standard—protecting fairness, privacy, and safety for girls in sports.”
Even the NCAA, which has been at the center of controversy regarding transgender participation in women’s sports, has acknowledged the need for uniform standards. NCAA President Charlie Baker stated, “We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions.”
Legislation is Needed to Secure Permanent Protections
While the executive order is a necessary course correction, it is not a permanent solution. Federal and state legislation is needed to ensure that future administrations cannot undo these protections.
Just days before the executive order was signed, a coalition of Republican senators introduced Senate Bill 9, the Save Women’s Sports Act, which would bar men from competing in women’s sports and codify these protections into law. This legislation aims to uphold Title IX by maintaining separate, sex-specific teams and ensuring fairness for female athletes.
Pennsylvania State Representative Barb Gleim stressed the need for continued action: “We still have more work to do now to move bills through the state that put the executive order into PA law.”
State Sen. Judy Ward, champion swimmer Riley Gaines, Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, Rep. Barb Gleim
at the President’s Executive Order signing ceremony.
Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward echoed this sentiment: “As women athletes across our Commonwealth have broken glass ceilings, their efforts to take girls’ sports to the next level will not be derailed by men competing as women in sports. We stand alongside women athletes to fight for their right for fair competition.”
Emily Kreps, a former collegiate swimmer and legal assistant at PA Family Institute, is confident that progress will continue. In an op-ed for PennLive, she wrote, “This can be the year that girls’ sports will be protected statewide in Pennsylvania. Why can I make such an audacious claim? Because 2024 was the year that the culture shifted—lawmakers chose principles over party, the reality of men displacing women in their own category became too much to ignore, and more courageous athletes and coaches spoke up.”
The Battle Against Gender Ideology Continues
The fight against radical gender ideology is far from over. Activist groups will undoubtedly challenge this executive order in court and push for policies that dismantle protections for female athletes. That is why action from Congress, state legislatures, and the courts is critical to securing permanent protections.
Alliance Defending Freedom, which has been at the forefront of legal battles to protect female athletes, acknowledged the significance of the executive order and also cautioned that more work remains: “Today’s executive order to defend women’s sports would not have been possible without courageous young women who stood up and spoke out when it wasn’t easy or popular.”
The Trump administration’s actions are a powerful response to the Biden administration’s unlawful attempts to redefine “sex” in Title IX to include gender identity. In January, a federal district court in Kentucky ruled against the Biden administration in State of Tennessee v. Cardona, blocking its attempt to change Title IX’s definition of sex. This ruling, along with the executive order, reinforces the need for a definitive ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent future attempts to erode women’s sports protections.
Moving Forward
The Trump executive order is a welcome and necessary step in the right direction, but the work is far from over. We must remain vigilant and continue to push for strong, lasting legal protections at both the federal and state levels.
As the debate over gender ideology and women’s rights continues, parents, athletes, and legislators must stand firm in upholding objective truth, fairness, and safety in sports. Now is the time for Pennsylvania lawmakers to pass legislation that aligns with this executive order, ensuring that female athletes are protected not just for today, but for generations to come.
House Bill 158.
