Wellesley Athletics took down their pages outlining their transgender policy from their website after President Donald Trump signed an executive order officially banning all transgender athletes from participating in girls and women’s sports on Wednesday.
The executive order 14168, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” restricts participation in women’s sports to individuals assigned female at birth. The order applies to all institutions that receive federal funding, which includes all public schools and nearly every college and university in the US.
It was signed on National Girls and Women’s in Sports Day, in alignment with Trump’s campaign promise of ending “the war on women’s sports.”
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) quickly followed the executive order and announced that it would formally change its policy on transgender students. The policy, which formerly allowed trans athletes to participate in women’s categories after a certain period and levels of hormone treatment, now requires all athletes competing in women’s categories to be assigned female at birth (AFAB). The NCAA has not changed its policy for transgender athletes participating in men’s sports, and it also still allows for non-AFAB athletes to participate on women’s formal practice teams (it is common for elite women’s basketball teams to compete against practice teams of male athletes).
Wellesley Athletics follows the same steps as other institutions such as Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, which also pulled their pages outlining their transgender policy from their websites.
In a statement to the News, the College said that Wellesley’s website changes reflect NCAA policy and that these policy changes do not apply to any current Wellesley athletes. On Feb. 7, Athletic Director Bethany Ellis commented in an email to athletes that while Wellesley will honor the NCAA change in policy, the Athletics “department remains committed to supporting and affirming all athletes, including our transgender student-athletes.”
This executive order is one of many actions taken by the Trump administration against transgender people. The Trump administration is already being sued by families of transgender children over an executive order that banned transgender healthcare for minors.
Contact the editors responsible for this story: Jessica Chen, Sazma Sarwar, and Valida Pau
