The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) took a more strict stance than other athletic organizations that permit transgender athletes to compete based on testosterone levels on April 8th, outlawing transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
The NAIA, which represents primarily small colleges, has less of an impact than the larger National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), but its decision has some political weight in the transgender rights debate in the United States.
The organization stated in its coverage that “only NAIA student athletes whose biological gender is female can compete in NAIA-sponsored adult sports.”
Female athletes who have begun using masculinizing hormone therapy can engage in domestic training, drills, and group activities but are prohibited from competing outside.
Any qualified athlete may join in people’s sports, the policy added.
The Council of Presidents of the association voted 20 to 0, according to ESPN, on the same day that World Netball even immediately outlawed trans players from international competition.
Jim Carr, the president and CEO of NAIA, acknowledged that the policy may cause controversy but that it was the best choice for a dynamic situation.
“We know there are a lot of ideas, and a lot of people have a very emotional response to this, and we want to be courteous of all that,” he said, as quoted by ESPN.
“But we believe that justice in competitors is our top priority, so we are going down that road.” And we’ve done our best to make sure everyone participated in some.
But, Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for LGBTQ rights, criticized the plan as a “cruel decision that enables bias”.
She continued on X, adding, “We strongly need organizations like the @NCAA to reject this kind of blanket discrimination.”
The NAIA has 83,000 players at 250 colleges while NCAA has more than 500,000 players at 1,100 part schools, according to their individual blogs.
When it comes to competition, the NCAA trans policy is less demanding.
It mandates that trans athletes have been receiving testosterone suppression therapy for at least one year and to analyze below selected levels at various times throughout the year.
Each sporting federation can establish its own rules under the International Olympic Committee (IOC) policy.
For instance, in 2022, trans women were required to either have slowed down male puberty before age 12 or have not yet reached a certain point in the process.
That legislation was announced immediately after University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a trans woman who had just transitioned, won the NCAA 500-yard swimming championship, which critics labeled cruel.
More than a few female athletes filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in March, alleging that Thomas’ involvement in the transgender equality plan violated their legal right under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education. Cnet
