The Department of Education is “urging” the largest organizing bodies in high school and college sports to rescind all “records, titles, awards, and recognitions” given to trans women and girls, the department announced in a press release Tuesday.
It’s President Donald Trump’s latest move against trans women athletes since his new administration took office; last week, the president signed an executive order banning trans women and girls at any institution that receives federal funding from playing on teams that align with their gender.
“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,” Candice Jackson, the department’s deputy general counsel, said in the press release.
Experts note that there is no concrete evidence that trans women are naturally more athletic than those assigned women at birth. The NCAA’s president told Congress in December that he knows of fewer than 10 current NCAA athletes who identify as trans, out of more than 500,000.