NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate committee that he knows of fewer than 10 transgender athletes currently competing in college sports, calling it a national issue for Republicans and Democrats. It poured cold water on what they claim is an increasingly difficult area.
“How many athletes are there at NCAA schools in America?” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) asked Baker about federal regulations on sports betting during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday.
“510,000 people,” said Baker, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts who will serve as president of the NCAA, which oversees intercollegiate athletics at more than 1,000 universities across the country, starting in 2023.
“How many transgender athletes do you know?” Durbin asked.
“Less than 10 people,” Baker said. He did not say whether the numbers included transgender men.
Transgender participation in women's sports has become a political lightning rod, dividing the country and playing an increasingly central role in political movements.
In an ad aired in the final stages of the presidential campaign, President-elect Trump used a photo of a transgender woman playing sports to portray Vice President Harris as extreme and out of touch with the majority of Americans. believer Trans athletes should compete on sports teams that match their birth gender. President Trump has indicated that he will sign an executive order banning transgender women and girls from participating in women's sports teams once he takes office in January.
Some Democratic Party members have also begun to speak out critically about trans-inclusive policies, causing backlash and internal conflict among party members.
Earlier Tuesday, Republican Sens. John Kennedy (Louisiana) and Josh Hawley (Missouri) blasted Baker over the NCAA's inclusion of transgender female athletes, but the Senate Lawmakers argued it would undermine the association's promise to ensure fairness in college sports.
Baker said it is “debatable” whether transgender women “always” have a physical advantage over cisgender or non-transgender women.
“Do you think it's debatable? Don't you think that biological males always have an advantage when competing against biological females?” Kennedy asked.
“If you define it the way you define it, I agree with you,” Baker said.
Available research paints a more nuanced picture.
recent cross-sectional study Transgender women who completed a year or more of hormone replacement therapy performed worse than cisgender women on tests measuring lower body strength and lung function, according to a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Trans women's bone density, which is associated with muscle strength, was found to be comparable to that of cisgender women, and levels of hemoglobin, which increases oxygen delivery to muscles and is associated with improved aerobic fitness, were found to be significant. There was no difference.
Previous research was also published In the British Journal of Sports Medicinefound that transgender women who had reached male puberty maintained their athletic advantage after a year of hormone therapy. Lead author of the study warned against The results will be used to firmly ban transgender athletes from competitive sports.
Baker said Tuesday that the NCAA, which is under increasing pressure from Republicans and conservative groups to ban transgender athletes from participating in college sports, has no right to such a policy because federal courts have consistently ruled in favor of participation. He said he would not hire him.
“We are a national governing body and we follow federal law,” he said, adding that he was ready to work with Congress to develop “federal standards” for eligibility.
“Part of our challenge is dealing with a series of highly opaque court decisions at the state and federal level surrounding this issue. Our policies ultimately need to conform to federal policy. So this creates a certain lack of clarity in our policy,” Baker said.
Since 2020, 25 states have passed laws banning transgender children and teens from competing on school sports teams that match their gender identity. According to the movement promotion projectTrack LGBTQ Law. Most of the bans also affect participation in college sports.
Federal judges have temporarily blocked laws from taking effect in Arizona, Utah, West Virginia and Idaho, with the latter two states asking the Supreme Court to reconsider the cases. In 2022, a judge in Montana permanently barred the state from enforcing a 2021 ban on transgender athletes participating in college sports.
In April, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which oversees college sports at 241 mostly small colleges across the country, approved a policy banning most transgender women from competing.
The NCAA has taken a different approach, announcing that starting in 2022, transgender participation in each sport will depend on guidelines set by the sport's national or international governing body.
More than a dozen college athletes announced their Title IX rights in March when the NCAA cleared Leah Thomas, a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer and the first transgender woman to win an NCAA Division I title, to compete nationally. sued the NCAA for violating the The championship will be held in Atlanta in 2022.
