ICFS Statement on the NCAA’S new “Transgender Participation Policy”
February 26, 2025
Dear President Donald Trump:
Mr. President, we, the International Consortium on Female Sport (ICFS), agree wholeheartedly with you that sex discrimination against women and girls in sports must no longer be tolerated.
While we celebrated your recent executive orders on Defending Women and on Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports, we are very concerned that the NCAA has not complied.
While the NCAA may seem to have aligned with your executive orders, closer inspection of their policy update on eligibility will reveal word play designed to side-step actual enforcement of female-only sports and spaces.
For easy reference, we show the discrepancies in the following chart.
WHAT USA WOMEN ASKED FOR | WHAT THE NCAA HAS DONE
|
Establish and enforce the right of female athletes to participate in sports based on sex.
| Unlike the Executive Orders, the NCAA uses “gender identity” to define woman and would grant a man access to the female category via legally altered birth records. Instead, woman must be defined in accordance with the definitions in the Executive Orders referenced above.
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Repeal all policies and rules that allow male athletes to take roster spots on women’s teams and/or compete in women’s events. | The NCAA’s use of the term “assigned female at birth” and its reliance on birth certificates does not preclude a man from obtaining a roster spot or a scholarship that would otherwise go to a female athlete; because some males with disorders of sexual development are erroneously identified as female at birth and birth certificates can be changed in 44 states.
|
Require NCAA member institutions to provide single-sex locker rooms for female athletes.
| Fails to provide safety and privacy for female athletes in their locker rooms.
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Revoke any/all records set by male athletes competing in the female category and restore the female NCAA sports archives by erasing championship wins and/or individual performances that were male-influenced.
| By not using biological sex to define woman, the NCAA has no ability to erase any NCAA “women’s records” set by a man claiming to be a woman; either retroactively from the archive or moving forward in time.
|
Activate a reliable and non-invasive system to screen incoming NCAA female athletes (cheek swab) to ensure that they are, indeed, female.
| No mention of screening or gatekeeping of any sort. |
Ensure that the NCAA takes full controlling authority for policing its own bullet-proof sex-based eligibility rules.
| The NCAA relinquishes control of policing its rules to state legislation and local bylaws. In this way, it undermines its own authority to establish and enforce this important national standard. To use the current Maine example: The NCAA’s policy would be moot, since Maine allows males in female sports.
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As a consortium of women in ten countries who advocate for sex-based female-only eligibility internationally, not only are we concerned about the direct impact of the NCAA policy on American female athletes, but we also realize that any United States government endorsement of the NCAA’s purported alignment with the new Executive Orders will make it more difficult for your Secretary of State to deliver upon your mandate, as follows:
Note: In direct contravention of the statement above, the NCAA continues to use “gender identity” in its framing of what constitutes “fairness” and “gatekeeping” in the female category.
We are very concerned: If the intent of your executive orders is so easily undermined at home on American territory, your desire to protect women's sport internationally will be thwarted.
We are committed to working with our member organizations in the USA and with numerous young female athletes, including Riley Gaines, who share our disappointment with this latest NCAA policy.
We are willing and ready to assist your administration and the NCAA by providing a replacement policy that will truly align with your orders. Unlike the current “Transgender Participation Policy for Transgender Student-Athletes,” the revised version should instead focus on the rights of female athletes to separate-sex sports and thus should be named something along these lines: “Eligibility for the Female Category in all NCAA Sports.”
Sincerely,
Founding Members of ICFS
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Press Release: ICFS Praises Trump Executive Orders and Condemns Olympics Letter
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