Republicans urging the NCAA to follow the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics' lead on transgender athletes
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FIRST ON FOX: More than a dozen House Republicans are calling on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to ban transgender women who were born male from participating in female college sports teams.
"We are deeply concerned about the future of women’s sports and upholding the critical Title IX protections for women’s sports with the NCAA’s current policies," said a letter led by Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., and signed by 16 fellow Republican lawmakers.
The group of 17 lawmakers wrote to NCAA President Charlie Baker after the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced last week that it was banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports, though they can still participate in team practices and non-competition activities.
Rep. Claudia Tenney is leading 16 other Republicans in a letter urging the NCAA to ban transgender athletes. (Getty Images)
The NAIA is a collegiate athletic league made up of smaller and private universities that governs roughly 83,000 student athletes, which is smaller than the over 500,000 student athletes across the NCAA’s three divisions.
"This policy appropriately recognizes the natural advantages that biological men have in certain athletic competitions. A 2022 study entitled ‘Transwoman Elite Athletes: Their Extra Percentage Relative to Female Physiology’ concluded that 'many anatomical sex differences driven by testosterone are not reversible,’" the GOP letter said.
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"Further, this study found that given that ‘estrogen therapy will not reverse most athletic performance parameters, it follows that transgender women will enter the female division with an inherent advantage because of their prior male physiology.’ The NCAA’s current transgender policy fails to take these scientific facts into consideration."
The lawmakers also took issue with recent comments by University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, when she said any student athlete who considers themselves a woman should be able to play on women’s NCAA teams.
The Republicans also took issue with University of South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley's recent comments on transgender athletes. (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)
"This statement ignores the biological facts and would harm female athletes throughout NCAA-affiliated schools," they wrote. "It is simply unfair for biological males to be allowed to compete against biological females. On top of that, allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports erodes critical Title IX protections for women."
"As such, we urge the NCAA to reconsider its current policy that allows biological males to deprive women of a fair opportunity to compete and achieve athletic success. All women in NCAA-affiliated schools should not fear having their athletic accomplishments minimized by biological males."
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They cited the 2022 swimming competition where University of Pennsylvania athlete Lia Thomas, who is transgender, beat a biologically female swimmer.
"This cannot be allowed to ever happen again. The NCAA must follow the NAIA’s lead and prohibit biological males from competing in women’s sports," they wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to the NCAA for a response.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
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