Athletes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) will only be allowed to compete in women's sports if they were assigned the female gender at birth, the national small-college organization announced Monday.
The NAIA's Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote Monday morning after a December survey indicated widespread support for the move. The association's previous policy only applied to postseason competition. The new directive applies to all NAIA competitions.
The NAIA is a national athletic governing body for 249 mostly small colleges across the country that are not part of the NCAA's three divisions of competition. The membership is 80% private schools. This decision does not apply to NCAA competitions.
"We know there are a lot of different opinions out there," NAIA president Jim Carr told CBS Sports. "For us, we believed our first responsibility was to create fairness and competition in the NAIA.... We also think it aligns with the reasons Title IX was created. You're allowed to have separate but equal opportunities for women to compete."
The NAIA is believed to be the first national college governing body to mandate that athletes compete according to assigned sex at birth.
According to Pew Research Center, 1.6% of U.S. adults are transgender or nonbinary. The NAIA has no knowledge of transgender athletes competing in its postseasons to this point, Carr said.
According to the NAIA's new policy (which is included in full below), in addition…
In 2022, Penn's Lia Thomas became the only openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I championship.
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@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
Considering the goal of fairness in competition, how do you balance this with the inclusion of transgender athletes in sports?
@9LF669J2yrs2Y
Transgender men shouldn't be allowed to be in a women's sport. EVen if they have transitioned or state they are women biologically they will always be better than women in almost anything they will do. It isn't fair for any of the women who are playing or have to change in the same locker rooms as them.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@V0t1ngGarlicUnity2yrs2Y
We are here at the beginning of the turning of the tide, and it feels... great!!! First NAIA, then the NCAA, then CIF. But, we can't rest on our laurels: our opponents will double down...fight even harder.
@HushedPantherPatriot2yrs2Y
High schools need this as well. All of them.
What a world where banning men from women’s sports is considered a significant move. We have fallen quite far as a society haven’t we?
@ElectionDovesRepublican2yrs2Y
Oh 100%
We are Rome and there’s lead in the water and not many realize it yet
@QuaintBallotBoxVeteran2yrs2Y
And by "men" they mean it in the sane way, not the cuckoo for cocoa puffs way.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@HKuromicat 2yrs2Y
This ban implies that transgender women are not women, when it is commonly supported by healthcare professionals that they are. This ban causes undue burden on these athletes, and creates more discrimination and hate speech against these groups.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
Please could you explain who the NAIA is and how it fits in with other organisations for someone not from the US? And great news!!!
Godawful reporting, though, "assigned the female gender at birth" is utter cobblers. "born female" is sufficient. Nobody is 'assigned' a 'gender' at birth, they have a sex, determined at fertilisation, observed sometime thereafter.
Yes. Finally someone is cutting through the metaphysical nonsense of "gender identity" and doing the right thing.
Reading it over & over. How very bizarre that we have to ‘ban men from women’s collegiate sports.’
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