(The hill) – NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate panel that to his knowledge there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes currently competing in college sports, throwing frosty water on an issue that Republicans say is a nationwide problem , which is increasingly controversial Democrats.
“How many athletes are there at NCAA schools in the United States?” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) asked Baker during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday on federal regulations surrounding sports gambling.
“Five hundred and ten thousand,” said Baker, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts who has been president since 2023 of the NCAA, which regulates intercollegiate athletics at more than 1,000 colleges and universities across the country.
“How many transgender athletes do you know?” Durbin asked.
“Less than 10,” Baker said. He did not say whether that number includes transgender men.
Transgender inclusion in women’s sports has grown a political lightning rodis dividing the nation and playing an increasingly central role in political campaigns.
In commercials aired during the closing stages of the presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump used photos of transgender women exercising to portray Vice President Kamala Harris as extreme and out of place with most Americans. who believe that trans athletes should compete on sports teams that correspond to their birth gender. Trump has signaled that he will sign an executive order Once he takes office in January, he will ban transgender women and girls from female sports teams.
Some Democrats have too began to speak critically of trans-inclusive policies, Sparking and power struggles among party members.
Earlier Tuesday, Republican Senators John Kennedy (La.) and Josh Hawley (Mo.) criticized Baker for including transgender athletes in the NCAA, which the senators say undermines the organization’s promise to ensure fairness in college sports .
Baker said it is “questionable” whether transgender women will “always” have a physical advantage over cisgender or non-transgender women.
“Do you think this is controversial? “Don’t you think that a biological male always has an advantage over a biological female?” asked Kennedy.
“The way you defined it, I would agree with you,” Baker said.
The available research results paint a more nuanced picture.
A current one Cross-sectional study A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that transgender women who received hormone replacement therapy for more than a year performed worse than cisgender women on tests measuring lower body strength and lung function.
Trans women’s bone density, which is related to muscle strength, was found to be equivalent to that of cisgender women, and there were no significant differences in hemoglobin levels, which facilitates muscle oxygenation and is related to better aerobic performance.
A previous study, also published in the British Journal of Sports Medicinefound that transgender women who went through male puberty maintained their athletic performance after a year of hormone therapy. The lead author of the study warned against it exploit the results to categorically exclude transgender athletes from competitive sports.
Baker said Tuesday that the NCAA, which is facing increasing pressure from Republicans and conservative organizations to ban transgender athletes from participating in college sports, would not adopt such a policy because federal courts have consistently sided with participation.
“We are a national governing body and follow federal law,” he said, adding that he would be open to working with Congress to create a “federal standard” for eligibility.
“Part of our challenge is dealing with a very unclear set of state and federal court decisions on this issue, which creates a certain lack of clarity around our policy because our policy ultimately has to be consistent with federal policy,” Baker said.
As of 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 Advancement Projectthat pursues LGBTQ laws. The majority of bans also affect participation in university sports.
Federal judges have temporarily blocked laws from taking effect in the latter two states of Arizona, Utah, West Virginia and Idaho have asked the Supreme Court to review their cases. A Montana judge in 2022 permanently banned the state from enforcing its 2021 ban on transgender athletes competing in college sports.
In April, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which oversees intercollegiate sports at 241 mostly tiny colleges across the country, approved a policy with the exception of most transgender women from the competition.
The NCAA has taken a different approach, announcing in 2022 that transgender participation in any sport will be subject to guidelines set by the sport’s national or international governing body.
More than a dozen college athletes sued the NCAA in March, alleging that the organization violated its Title IX rights by allowing Lia Thomas, a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer and the first trans woman to win an NCAA Division I title, to compete in its 2022 national championships Atlanta to attend.
