DENVER — On National Girls and Women in Sports Day, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from girls' and women's sports.
"With this executive order, the war on women's sports is over," said Trump at a ceremony celebrating the order.
It's a moment supporters have long been waiting for.
"The forces of darkness want to strip the joy away and say that some men want to participate in girls' sports. It's really been a huge step backward for Women's Civil Rights," said Craig DeRoche, president and CEO of Family Policy Alliance and Foundation.
This is also a moment trans-rights advocates have been bracing for.
"It's really important that we don't ostracize young kids just because some politicians don't agree with their identities," said Jax Gonzalez with One Colorado. "The reality is they're here. They have an incredible amount to give to building community and belonging among other children, and it's really important that they're able to access those spaces."
The executive order bans anyone who was biologically born as a male from playing on girls' or women's sports teams.
"We're putting every school receiving taxpayers dollars on notice that if you let men take over women's sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding. There will be no federal funding," said Trump.
The Trump administration's interpretation of Title IX, as laid out in the executive order, is that allowing transgender athletes to play girls' and women's sports and use the same locker rooms will "deny female students an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them, in the women's category, to compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males."
"[If] you're giving away a gold medal, you're giving away a college scholarship, we need to respect and honor the hopes and dreams and the hard work of those athletes and we need to protect our women's civil rights," said DeRoche.
One Colorado advocates said it is not likely that a transgender athlete, particularly with children, would have an unfair advantage.
"The muscle growth, the height growth, the structure of fat on the body, all of those things are heavily impacted by taking hormone replacement therapy or blocking hormone production. Those children who want to play sports and want to belong often have the same ability, if not less than other children with the same sex assigned at birth," said Gonzalez. "A few politicians want you to believe that this is about fairness in sports, but this is about scapegoating a very vulnerable group of children."
The executive order goes on to require all-female locker rooms and calls for executive agencies to review federal grant programs and rescind funding for any programs that don't comply with the new policies.
NCAA President Charlie Baker issued a statement, saying the Board of Governors is "reviewing the executive order and will take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the coming days."
"The NCAA is an organization made up of 1,100 colleges and universities in all 50 states that collectively enroll more than 530,000 student-athletes. We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today's student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, President Trump's order provides a clear, national standard.
"The NCAA Board of Governors is reviewing the executive order and will take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the coming days, subject to further guidance from the administration. The Association will continue to help foster welcoming environments on campuses for all student-athletes. We stand ready to assist schools as they look for ways to support any student-athletes affected by changes in the policy."
Denver7 also reached out to the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA), which said, "We are aware of the Executive Order issued by President Donald Trump and we recognize its potential implications. As always, we will continue to monitor both State and Federal statutes and developments on behalf of our membership. At this time, we have no further comment."
Denver7's request for comment from the United States Olympic Committee had not been returned as of the time of publication.
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