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≡ INTEL REPORT ≡
“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over.”
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on Wednesday – “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” – aimed at removing transgender women from women’s sporting event. He added:
“We are putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice, if you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX & risk your Federal funding. There will be no Federal funding.
“So this will effectively end the attack on female athletes at public K-12 schools and virtually all U.S. colleges and universities.”
Presidential spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing:
“He expects the [United States] Olympic [& Paralympic] Committee and the National Collegiate Athletic Association to no longer allow men to compete in women’s sports. With this signing, the president begins a public campaign of pressure on these organizations to do right by women and girls across the country.
“He expects these organizations to comply with the executive order he is signing today.”
The order itself was not promptly posted on the White House news site following the afternoon signing ceremony.
The Associated Press reported that Trump, in comments during the East Room ceremony, “will deny visas to any transgender female athletes trying to compete at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.” He further instructed the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, to refuse entry into the U.S. for men – as defined – coming to compete at the Games as female athletes.
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On the legislative side, the U.S. House passed H.R. 28, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 on 14 January, which included:
● “[A] recipient of Federal financial assistance who operates, sponsors, or facilitates an athletic program or activity to permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls.”
● “For the purposes of this subsection, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
The bill was referred to the Senate on 15 January, but has not received any further action.
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Separately, a suit was filed in Federal Court in Massachusetts on Tuesday by three former University of Pennsylvania swimmers against The Ivy League Council, the NCAA, Harvard and Penn on behalf of a class of 206 Ivy League swimmers who competed or believed they should have been able to compete at the 2022 Ivy League women’s swimming championships and are suing under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
The class alleges discrimination under Title IX in that a transgender woman – Penn’s Lia Thomas, who won three individual events – competed in the meet, under NCAA rules and created a redressable injury under the statute.
The pleading insists that Title IX requires sports teams to be separated by gender, and that by allowing transgender women to compete in the women’s division, opportunities for biological women are reduced.
Further, the complaint noted that the plaintiffs understood the position of the University of Pennsylvania to be that if any of the team members had a problem with Thomas being on the team – he had previously been a swimmer on the men’s team – that counseling was available, but that Thomas was going to be a member of the women’s team for that season.
The suit asks for an injunction with erases Thomas’ performances at the school, league and NCAA levels and a declaration that Thomas was an ineligible athlete that season. Moreover, the prayer is for “damages for pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety, expenses costs and other damages against the NCAA, Ivy League, Harvard, and UPenn due to their wrongful conduct.”
The case number is 1:25-cv-10281 in Estabrook et al vs. The Ivy League Council of Presidents et al, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
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