West Virginia Senator Jim Justice, along with several Republican colleagues, has sent a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker requesting clarification on the organization's policy concerning transgender athletes' access to women's locker rooms. Justice, who also coaches girls' basketball, emphasized the importance of safety and privacy for female athletes.
The senators commended the NCAA for adopting a policy that prevents biological males from competing in women's sports, a move aligned with a previous executive order by former President Trump. However, they are seeking further assurances that this policy extends to locker rooms and other sex-segregated spaces.
The letter highlights the NCAA's policy that grants biological male athletes practicing with female athletes the same benefits as other eligible student-athletes. The senators are urging the NCAA to explicitly clarify that these benefits do not include access to women's locker rooms or other female-only spaces.
Justice and his colleagues praised the NCAA's use of "sex assigned at birth" as the determining factor for participation in women's sports, but they encourage the organization to explicitly prohibit the use of amended birth certificates to circumvent this policy.
They argue that allowing biological males into women's locker rooms would undermine the privacy and safety of female athletes, contradicting the intent of Title IX and President Trump's executive order. The senators urged the NCAA to add language to its policy that explicitly restricts biological male athletes from female-only spaces and to implement additional privacy protections for women and girls in sports.
The senators expressed their support for President Trump's actions to protect female athletes and commended the NCAA's efforts, stating their desire to collaborate with the organization to ensure equal opportunities for women and girls in athletics. The NCAA has not yet responded to a request for comment.
