The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) sent a letter Tuesday to both the NCAA and NFHS urging them to restore to female athletes the records, titles, awards, and recognitions "misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories."
According to an announcement on the DOJ website, the department has called on the associations overseeing collegiate and high school sports to "continue the progress made in recent days and strip the records, titles, awards, and recognitions wrongfully credited to the biological males who unfairly competed against girls and women in athletics."
Correcting the record is entirely consistent with the NCAA’s new policy intended to preclude males from competing in women’s sports, the announcement states.
Related: NCAA Announces Changes to Transgender Student-Athlete Participation Policy
“Because of President Trump’s bold leadership, men will no longer be allowed to compete in women’s sports regardless of how they identify, and the NCAA has correctly changed its tune on its discriminatory practices against female athletes,” said Candice Jackson, deputy general counsel. “The next necessary step is to restore athletic records to women who have for years been devalued, ignored and forced to watch men steal their accolades. The Trump Education Department will do everything in our power to right this wrong and champion the hard-earned accomplishments of past, current and future female collegiate athletes.”
Last week, the DOJ also launched investigations into two educational institutions and an athletic association where violations of Title IX have been reported, according to Tuesday's announcement. "Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments provides that no student 'shall on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under' any federally funded education program or activity," the announcement states. "As such, K-12 school districts, colleges, and athletics associations are strongly encouraged to keep factually accurate athletics records and to make corrections where male athletes were allowed to erase female records during the Biden administration."
Related: DOJ to Investigate Reported Title IX Violations, Review Athletics Policies
As reported by NBC News, more than 500,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championship sports. While it’s unclear how many are transgender, NCAA president Charlie Baker told a Senate committee in December that he is aware of fewer than 10.
NFHS reported that more than 8 million students competed in high school sports last year, though the organization does not report how many are trans.
"In 2021, when dozens of states considered legislation to restrict trans athletes’ participation in school sports, The Associated Press reached out to more than two dozen state lawmakers sponsoring the measures along with conservative groups supporting them and found that sponsors could not cite a single instance in their own state or region where such participation had caused problems," wrote Jo Yurcaba, a reporter for NBC Out.
More than half of states have enacted measures restricting trans athletes from playing school sports on the teams that align with their gender identities., but courts have blocked state bans in Arizona, Idaho, Utah and West Virginia. Trump's latest order is likely to face lawsuits, Yurcaba reported.
