Despite President Trump's executive order signed on February 5, there are still a whole lot of boys and men competing in women's sports

We have a long way to go. Here's my list of what's been happening. (WARNING: it's a long list)

President Trump signed an executive order called “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” two months ago, on February 5.

The order prompted the NCAA to revise its transgender participation policy, but it does not, in fact, keep men out of women’s sports.

Since the new EO was put into effect and the NCAA policy change, the following has happened:

• In late March, Lia/Will Thomas said transgender athletes should be the ones making up the rules and the policies for everyone to abide by. It’s hard to fathom a more selfish statement than this one, made by Lia/Will Thomas who previously competed for the University of Pennsylvania’s men's swimming team and then swam in the women's category during the 2022 season, winning the women's 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships

  “It has to be the athletes deciding for themselves where they feel most affirmed and most comfortable,” Thomas said. “Having routes that are safe and non-discriminatory, that allow them access to that.”

• The lawsuit against the NCAA brought by female swimmers who were forced to compete against Thomas in 2021-2022 is, as yet, unresolved. As is the lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference brought by female volleyball players who were forced to play against the San Jose State University (SJSU) team, which fielded a male player (Blaire Fleming).

• Team co-captain/setter Brooke Slusser fled the SJSU campus after being threatened and harassed on campus for standing up against men playing in women’s sports.

  Slusser has said:

  “I would just be walking, and I’d have people say things to me, like I had one girl just scream ‘f--- you!’ to me. I was in the elevator one time at my apartment and some girls, as they were walking out, were like ‘oh, that’s the girl, you should have slapped her when you had the chance.”

  The Bay Area university failed to provide Slusser with any protection and she didn’t feel safe on campus. So she left school and will complete her college experience virtually, at home with her parents in Texas.

• Melissa Batie-Smoose, the assistant coach at SJSU, who also spoke out on the matter, was suspended. She still doesn’t have a job. Add to that, her home was vandalized and shot at with a pellet gun back in February.

• In March, ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio (a trans identified female) said there are no instances of men competing in women’s sports. Strangio is using language deceptively here; Strangio’s view is that trans women are women therefore there are no men competing and winning in women’s sports, despite the fact that there have been over 3600 instances, 7600 if you count team sports. You can find this info and more at hecheated.org.

  

• Male athlete Redmond Sullivan continues to compete in women’s fencing competitions with “Wagner University NCAA” listed as his team. He finished 1st at the Connecticut Division Summer National Qualifiers earlier in March.

• Ithaca College women’s rowing defied the President’s executive order when they allowed sophomore male rower, Juniper (Tyler) Gattone, to compete in the women's Cayuga Duals in late March.

  Ithaca College competes in the Liberty League. The Liberty League also includes Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

  

• RIT is notable because Sadie Schreiner — the trans-identified male track & field athlete who recently complained about a lack of Division I opportunities for males in women’s sports — competes on the RIT women’s team. Still.

Ok but what about K-12? Public K-12 schools are not impacted by the toothless NCAA policy but they do fall under Title IX and the President’s executive order.

It’s still happening there too.

• There are currently three males ranked #1 in the female categories in their state, Aayden “Ada” Gallagher (OR), Logan “Veronica” Garcia (WA), and “AB” Hernandez (CA).

• Oregon: Mid-march, Ada Gallagher, dominated high school girls’ track and field in Portland — winning 2 golds for a second straight year.

• Washington: Veronica Garcia (formerly known as Logan Brown) and Aspen Hoffman are continuing to run in the women’s category in Washington state. Garcia was the 2024 “girl’s” state champion in the 400 meter dash while Hoffman has qualified for state in both track and cross country.

• California: AB Hernandez, a junior at Jurupa Valley High School, won the triple jump by 8 feet at the Ontario Relays Invitational meet on Feb. 22.

• Also in California: a male basketball player continues to play on the girls’ team at the Waldorf school in San Francisco.

• Washington, Oregon and California are all actively ignoring the executive order. This is despite Governor Newsom (CA) recently stating on his own podcast that he knows it is deeply unfair. He knows it, but he doesn’t care, apparently.

• “Nora” Vardenny recently finished 1st in the girls free skate at the 2025 Intermountain Classic Figure Skating Championships. Vardenny also participates in girls’ high school swimming in Utah.

• 30 gymnastics results were altered by various male athletes. The male gymnasts on the list do not identify as “trans” but are allowed to compete against girls rather than boys if their school does not have a boys’ team. The official USA Gymnastics transgender policy is that anyone can compete in women’s gymnastics, except at the elite level.

Congress:

• Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) urged Democrats not to give in to “anti-transgender” rhetoric.

• Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said men in women’s sports is not an issue. “Like, what are we doing?!” she said.

• In the Senate, not a single Democrat voted to protect women and girls’ sports.

Blue States Flouting and Fighting Back:

• Fourteen states — California, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — will make changes to birth certificates upon request, no questions asked. All but 6 states allow changes to birth certificate sex markers, some just make you jump through a few more hoops.

• Gavin Newsom says the Party’s brand on the issue is “toxic.” Despite commenting on his own podcast that it is “deeply unfair” for boys to compete in girls’ sports, he is more worried about the boys being sad and threatening suicide if they can’t win girls’ competitions anymore. So he’s doing nothing to rectify the situation. Just give those guys’ what they want, right? How very inclusive.

• The California Interscholastic Federation is under investigation by the Department of Education for violating Title IX. So is Maine. They risk losing federal funding but that doesn’t stop ‘em!

• On April 1, at the hearing on AB89, instead of discussing the bill to protect women’s sports, Assembly Member Rick Chavez Zbur ranted about how protecting girls’ sports is the same as genocide in Nazi Germany. You can’t make this up.

• In Maine, Governor Janet Mills and other officials have refused to sign a Title IX compliance agreement that would ban males from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

• The Maine legislature censured Rep. Laurel Libby for speaking out for female athletes in the state. A bunch of men told a woman she couldn’t speak up in defense of girls. That’s not retrograde at all! (sarcasm. . . I’m told I need to point it out when I’m being sarcastic!)

• In Minnesota, the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) has publicly indicated they will not comply with the order and will continue to allow males who “identify” as girls to compete in girls’ sports.

• In Washington, Governor Bob Ferguson announced: “The [Washington] Department of Health will now process all requests to change gender designation on birth certificates within three business days.” According to the NCAA’s new policy you can compete in the category aligned with your birth certificate’s sex marker. So there’s that.

Ok, do you have any good news, Jen? Some. . .

• Colorado: The XX-XY Athletics Real Girls Rock tee — worn by brave school board member Nancy Rumfelt — sparked a 4-hour school board meeting in Loveland, Colorado, requiring 2 overflow rooms to accommodate all the people who wanted to speak out for it or against it. Nancy fights for the local girls soccer team. Nancy rocks. Ok, that’s kind of mixed news, I guess. But it happened. And Nancy stood strong.

• In Michigan, the state House of Representatives passed a resolution urging the state’s High School Athletic Association to uphold Trump's executive order protecting women's sports with support from 8 Democratic members. More of this please.

• And in Georgia, the Riley Gaines Act which will keep women’s sports female in the state, is headed to Governor Kemp’s desk to be signed. Go Riley.

Whew I’m tired. That’s a lot. It feels like we haven’t made progress. And in some ways, we haven’t. But those last three items give me hope.

As I’ve said until I’m blue in the face, we need the culture to change. We need the 79% of Americans who agree that women’s sports are for women only to stand up and say it. Then we can’t lose.

Sadly, most of them are still scared and silent.