Stanford Athletics pledged to adhere to new NCAA policies on Feb. 6, stating that a person who was assigned male at birth may not compete on any female teams in the NCAA, regardless of their gender identity. However, athletes can still participate in practices with the team that aligns with their gender identity, regardless of sex assigned at birth.
Stanford’s new policies align with President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which bans transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. The Trump administration has framed the order as a way to “protect women’s access to safe and fair athletic opportunities,” according to White House officials.
“Stanford is dedicated to maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all members of its community,” Deputy Athletics Director Carter Henderson wrote in an email to The Daily on behalf of Stanford’s Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation. “As a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, we intend to follow the policies established by the NCAA.”
The executive order cites Title IX as a reason for transgender women to be excluded from women’s sports, writing that “ignoring fundamental biological truths between the two sexes deprives women and girls of meaningful access to educational facilities.”
The policies apply to athletes assigned female at birth and athletes assigned male at birth who have begun hormone treatments and aim to play on women’s teams. The rules do not apply to men’s NCAA teams. Regardless of sex and gender identity, student-athletes are permitted to compete on the men’s teams if they are able to meet athletic criteria to be on the team.
Susan Stryker, a historian, transgender studies scholar and current distinguished visitor at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, said that transgender women’s participation in sports has become politicized and triggered a “moral panic.”
“Concerns about trans women participating in women’s sports are vastly overblown, and are deliberately being exaggerated and weaponized as part of a broader culture-war targeting of trans people,” Stryker wrote. “If you actually follow the sports science, trans women and girls who have been on puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy for a year show no measurable difference with cisgender teen girls and women… It simply isn’t that big a deal.”
Changes to transgender athlete policies are not Trump’s only recent actions focused on Title IX. The Trump administration ordered that schools fully re-implement his 2020 Title IX policies, which had been in effect until former-President Joe Biden revised the Title IX regulations on Aug. 1, 2024, including to expand protections for LGBTQ+ students.
The Trump administration “will return to enforcing Title IX protections on the basis of biological sex in schools and on campuses,” Trump wrote in the executive order. The change means that new Title IX policies and investigations will only apply to cases of discrimination on the basis of sex, rather than gender identity or sexuality.
The order only protects students from sexual harassment on campuses, excluding any incidences of discrimination at off-campus academic events such as study abroad programs or events at professors’ houses.
University spokesperson Luisa Rapport wrote in an email to The Daily that the University was evaluating the new regulations regarding trans athletes and Title IX.
“We are dedicated to maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all members of the Stanford community while we evaluate new policies and their potential effects,” Rapport wrote. “Until then, we will continue to comply with the Title IX policies established in 2020, which are currently in effect.”