The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) voted Monday to ban all transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports in small colleges around the country, the organization announced.
The NAIA said the new policy will be implemented starting the next academic year.
The NAIA’s Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote Monday morning that amended its previous policy that only applied to postseason competition. The policy applies to all NAIA competitions.
“With the exception of competitive cheer and competitive dance, the NAIA created separate categories for male and female participants,” the NAIA said in a statement. “Each NAIA sport includes some combination of strength, speed and stamina, providing competitive advantages for male student-athletes. As a result, the NAIA policy for transgender student-athletes applies to all sports except for competitive cheer and competitive dance, which are open to all students.”
The NAIA is a national athletic governing body for 249 mostly small colleges across the country. The NAIA oversees some 83,000 athletes competing in more than 25 sports at mostly private schools that are not part of the NCAA’s three divisions of competition.
The revised transgender participation policy allows all athletes to participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports but only athletes whose biological sex assigned at birth is female and have not begun hormone therapy will be allowed to participate in women’s sports. The NAIA is believed to be the first college sports organization to adopt such a policy.
The precise number of transgender athletes at the high school and college levels is unknown, but the general consensus is the amount is small. The NAIA has no knowledge of transgender athletes competing in its postseasons to this point, NAIA president Jim Carr told cbssports.com.
Transgender athletes competing in women’s sports has been a hot topic and under intense scrutiny among conservative groups and others. The critics say transgender athletes have an unfair advantage and they should not be allowed to compete on girls’ and women’s sports teams.
The NAIA”s decision does not apply to NCAA competitions, but the NCAA is sure to take notice. The organization is currently being sued by more than a dozen current and former college athletes, who accuse the NCAA of violating their rights by allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports.
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