GOP governors demand the NCAA ban trans women from women’s sports

Nine Republican governors have signed a letter to the NCAA asking the organization to ban trans women from competing in women’s sports.

The letter’s signatories are Governors Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, Tate Reeves of Mississippi, Mike Parson of Missouri, Greg Gianforte of Montana, Joe Lombardo of Nevada, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Greb Abbott of Texas, and Mark Gordon of Wyoming.

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Of these states, all but Nevada have passed legislation banning trans youth from participating in school sports on teams that align with their gender.

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The group decries the NCAA’s current policy on trans athletes, which states participation is to be determined on a sport-by-sport basis based on the policy of each sport’s national governing body.

“The NCAA has the chance to guarantee an environment where female college athletes can thrive without the concern of inequities,” the letter states. “We trust that you also want to guarantee just such an environment. But this policy allows the NCAA to avoid responsibility for ensuring the fairness of collegiate sports – therefore it must be changed.”

The letter then brought up anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, who has become a darling of the far-right since she tied for fifth place in a swimming competition with trans swimmer Lia Thomas and was told Thomas would be taking home the trophy.

As Gaines has done, the governors positioned this story as a massive tragedy in Gaines’s life that ripped away her “decade of hard work and the countless hours spent in the pool.” They also claimed that “science proves that it is fundamentally unfair for a biological male to compete against a biological female” and “that does not change when someone declares themselves as being of a different gender.”

The letter warned that “stories like Riley Gaines will only become more common” should the NCAA continue with its current policy. It went on to misgender trans women by stating, “policies that allow men and women to compete against one another validate an average male athlete stealing the recognition from a truly remarkable female athlete.”

In a statement, ACLU of Wyoming executive director Libby Skarin called the letter “another attempt to erase transgender people from society while stirring up support from their base of anti-trans activists with fearmongering tactics and discriminatory rhetoric that harm some of the most vulnerable people in our state.”

The organization slammed Wyoming Gov. Gordon for signing on to the letter despite refusing to sign the anti-trans sports ban that ultimately passed into law in the state without his signature. At the time, Gordon called the legislation “draconian” and “discriminatory.”

As such, the ACLU of Wyoming accused him of “grandstanding” with his message to the NCAA. But according to a Gordon spokesman, there is a difference between K-12 sports and in collegiate sports.

The ACLU of Wyoming emphasized that trans people “belong everywhere – including in sports” and said they do not deserve to be used “in a game of political football.”