Transgender women will no longer be welcome to compete as females in NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) competitions, the governing body voted Monday.
The NAIA’s national convention, the Council of Presidents, announced the decision Monday, stating that beginning August 1, ‘only students whose biological sex is female’ can compete in women’s NAIA sports. The vote was a unanimous 20-0.
Although not nearly as recognized or as powerful as the NCAA, the NAIA has 250 member schools from across the country and its athletes receive $1.3 billion in scholarship money, according to the organization website.
The NCAA has been at the center of the debate over trans women in female sports over the last few years. Most notably, Penn transgender Penn swimmer Lia Thomas sparked controversy by competing in the 2022 NCAA championships, while CeCe Telfer of Franklin Pierce caused a stir in 2019 by winning the women’s Division II 400 meter hurdles after previously competing as a man.
In fact, Monday’s NAIA decision comes as the NCAA faces a lawsuit from more than a dozen college athletes, who claim their Title IX rights were violated when Thomas competed at the 2022 national championships.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas reacts after an event in 2022
The lawsuit, filed last month in US District Court in Atlanta, details the shock Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines and other swimmers felt when they learned they would have to share a locker room with Thomas at the championships in Atlanta. It documents a number of races they swam in with Thomas, including the 200-yard final in which Thomas and Gaines tied for fifth but Thomas, not Gaines, was handed the fifth-place trophy.
Thomas swam for Pennsylvania. She competed for the men’s team at Penn before her gender transition.
Thomas was the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title in any sport, finishing in front of three Olympic medalists for the championship. By not making the final, the lawsuit mentions that Florida swimmer Tylor Mathieu, who was not a plaintiff, was denied first-team All-American honors in that event.
Other plaintiffs included athletes from volleyball and track.
The lawsuit said the plaintiffs ‘bring this case to secure for future generations of women the promise of Title IX that is being denied them and other college women’ by the NCAA.
‘College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and while the NCAA does not comment on pending litigation, the Association and its members will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition in all NCAA championships,’ the NCAA said in a statement.
CeCe Telfer of Franklin Pierce wins the 400 meter hurdles during the Division II Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 2019
In 2022, the NCAA revised its policies on transgender athlete participation in what they called an attempt to align with national sports governing bodies.
The third phase of the revised policy adds national and international sports governing body standards to the NCAA’s rules and is scheduled to be implemented for the 2024-25 school year.
The lawsuit also lists the University of Georgia system as a defendant because one of its schools, Georgia Tech, hosted the 2022 championships. The suit seeks to halt the NCAA from employing its transgender eligibility policies ‘which adversely impact female athletes in violation of Title IX’ at upcoming events being held in Georgia.
Representatives from the Georgia schools said they had not been served with the lawsuit and would not comment.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics voted Monday to ban transgender women from women’s competitions starting next school year, spurring concerns among transgender-rights advocates that the NCAA may follow suit.
At the NAIA’s national convention, the Council of Presidents determined that beginning Aug. 1, ‘only students whose biological sex is female’ may compete in women’s sports. That includes transgender men or nonbinary students who are not receiving masculinizing hormones.
