President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that could imperil federal funding for schools across the U.S. if they allow transgender girls and women to compete in female sports.
Trump signed an order that mandates the Department of Education to tell schools that they would violate Title IX, the federal law that bans sex discrimination in schools, if they allow trans girls and women in female sports. Schools that are found to discriminate based on sex are not eligible for federal funding.
The order comes despite the U.S. having a tiny number of trans athletes — trans people make up just over 1% of all people ages 13-24 in the country, according to estimates by UCLA Law’s Williams Institute, and only a fraction of that 1% are athletes.
During his presidential campaign, Trump vowed to ban trans people from girl’s and women’s sporting competitions, and he has taken several executive actions that check off wishlist items for anti-trans activists: On Trump’s first day back in the Oval Office, he signed an order that declared the federal government will formally recognize only two genders, male and female; his Education Department launched an investigation into a Denver school district for an all-gender bathroom; and Trump signed an order that would penalize teachers who help students “socially transition.”
