NAIA Bans Transgender Athletes From Women's Sports With Unanimous Vote

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The NAIA, which governs 249 small colleges around the United States, has banned transgender athletes from competing in women's sports. The governing body announced the news on Monday after the Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote.

The NAIA is believed to be the first national college athletics governing body to ban transgender athletes and only allow women to compete in women's sports who were assigned a female gender at birth.

Interestingly enough, the NAIA's previous policy regarding transgender athletes only applied to postseason competition. The new policy will keep trans athletes out of women's sports for all competitions. The updated policy also blocks individuals who were assigned female at birth who have begun "masculizing hormone therapy" to transition to woman.

"We know there are a lot of different opinions out there," NAIA president Jim Carr told CBS Sports. "For us, we believed our first responsibility was to create fairness and competition in the NAIA. ... We also think it aligns with the reasons Title IX was created. You're allowed to have separate but equal opportunities for women to compete."

Carr's explanation may seem simple, but that's because in using common sense and biology, the debate about trans athletes in women's sports is simple. There are differences in biological males and females, and those differences exist and have an impact in sport. 

The new policy is set to go into effect on August 1, 2024.

A biological male competing against biological women is not fair, it's the opposite. As Carr insinuates, men and women deserve perfectly equal, but separate, opportunities.

The NCAA, which is a separate entity to the NAIA, took the stance in 2022 that it would allow the national governing bodies for each individual sport to determine the eligibility of transgender athletes in women's sports. 

In other words, the NCAA is deflecting decisions regarding biological males participating in women's sports to other decision-makers so it doesn't get its hands dirty.

The Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS) recently announced that it will be exclusively funding support for a lawsuit against the NCAA and its regulations allowing male athletes to compete in women's sports. OutKick's Riley Gaines, along with 15 other former and current female college athletes, are among those championing the critical lawsuit regarding transgender athletes.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.