So-called ‘trans’ people are to be banned from competing in same-sex sports from Wednesday, February 5, according to the White House, as President Trump is expected to sign his latest executive order.
As promised on his electoral campaign, the US president is said to be ready to pass into law a ban on men, biological men, those born with the XY chromosome, from competing in women’s sports, and vice versa with women in men’s sports.
The move comes after more than a decade of those making a verbal claim to being the opposite ‘gender’ insisting that their claimed gender is the same as their physical sex as a justification for having a right to compete against athletes of the opposite physical sex.
In the first of his executive orders on the day of the presidential inauguration, President Trump clarified and sealed in law that there are only two sexes and that gender or an anonymous ‘X’ be accepted on passports or any other legal identification.
‘The president bans it,’ Trump said in response to a question on how he would handle ‘the transgender issue’ in women’s sports. ‘You just don’t let it happen. Not a big deal.’
Trans athletes: Most Americans opposed to male athletes in female sports
In a poll carried out by Gallup in 2023, most Americans were clear on the subject and believed transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete in sports categories that match their so-called ‘gender identity’.
Many college students and their parents have expressed concern and anger about opportunities that women were losing because of biological men competing in their sports, taking away professional opportunities from females, giving an unfair advantage to males who had not excelled in their own category, and the physical danger posed to the women and girls who had to face in sports such as football, rugby, and more notably, boxing.
Controversy ignited at the Paris Olympic Games in August 2024 when Imane Khelif defeated Angela Carini in 46 seconds in the opening bout; the Italian reduced to tears, abandoned the fight after a punch to the nose. Khelif had been disqualified from the World Boxing Championships because a DNA test clearly detected XY (male) chromosomes. In addition to Khelif, Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan is also competing in the women’s category; a DNA test also revealed the male chromosome pair XY.
