West Virginia senator wants NCAA to make clear ‘a women’s locker room is for women only'

EXCLUSIVE: West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice and more than half a dozen GOP senators are seeking clarification from the NCAA on its policy allowing biological males in women’s locker rooms, telling Fox News Digital that the organization needs to make clear that "a women’s locker room is for women only." 

Justice, R-W.Va., penned a letter to National Collegiate Athletic Association President Charlie Baker Monday, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital. 

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Justice, who is a women’s basketball coach at Greenbrier East High School in Lewisburg, West Virginia, and has coached both boys and girls basketball since he was governor of West Virginia, explained to Fox News Digital that he will "always" work to ensure female athletes are protected. 

"I’m a coach, and I know the last thing any athlete needs is to be distracted or concerned with their own safety or privacy while in a locker room," Justice told Fox News Digital. "I really believe the NCAA has made the right move following President Trump’s order, but let’s be clear across the board that a women’s locker room is for women only." 

West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice is a women’s basketball coach at Greenbrier East High School and has coached both boys and girls basketball since he was governor of West Virginia.  (Sen. Jim Justice)

Justice added: "I’ll always work to make sure women athletes, like those I coach back in West Virginia, feel safe while changing in locker rooms and competing in athletic events." 

The letter Justice sent Monday also was signed by Sens. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va, Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Jim Banks, R-Ind., James Risch, R-Idaho, Mike Lee, R-Utah, and James Lankford, R-Okla. 

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice delivers his State of the State address, Jan. 10, 2024, in Charleston, W.Va. 

"On February 5, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order--Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports to strengthen Title IX and protect opportunities for biological female athletes to compete in safe and fair sports.' After the Biden-Harris administration's assault on Title IX in its efforts to allow biologically male athletes who identify as female to compete in women's sports, this order came as a sigh of relief to millions of female athletes across the country who desire equal opportunity to engage in competitive athletic," Justice wrote. 

Justice said that the NCAA responded to Trump’s order by updating its student-athlete participation policy to block biological male students from participating in women's sports— a move he and his Senate colleagues "commend," but is further encouraging the organization to "take additional steps to protect the safety and privacy of female athletes nationwide." 

"The NCAA's new policy makes clear that biological male student-athletes may not compete on a women's team. We could not be more supportive of this essential policy change," Justice said. "The NCAA's policy guarantees that biological male athletes who practice with female athletes will ‘receive all other benefits applicable to student-athletes who are otherwise eligible for practice.’" 

Fox News Digital reached out to the NCAA for comment and did not immediately receive a response. 

Justice said the NCAA has "an opportunity to clarify that these guarantees do not include access to facilities that would undermine the privacy and safety of female athletes- -such as women's locker rooms or other female-only spaces which the President's order made clear should be protected.'"

Justice is asking that the NCAA "consider adding language to its policy that explicitly bars biological male athletes from female-only spaces and to consider adopting additional privacy protections for women and girls in sports." 

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Justice, though, applauded the NCAA’s policy defining "*sex assigned at birth" as the male or female designation that doctors assign to infants at birth, which is marked on birth records. 

"Publicly, the NCAA has affirmed that biological male athletes may not compete on a women's team with amended birth certificates or by other documentary means," Justice wrote. "The NCAA's public stance on this issue is commendable, and its policy could go a step further and explicitly state that amended birth certificates are prohibited." 

"We stand in support of President Trump's unparallel actions to protect the safety and privacy of female athletes across the country," the letter states. "The NCAA's efforts are likewise respectable, and we look forward to working with you to ensure women and girls have equal opportunity in athletics." 

Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.