WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump signed an executive order today attempting to exclude transgender girls and women from female sports, a directive that supporters say will restore fairness but critics say infringes on the rights of a tiny minority of athletes.

The order directs the Department of Justice to make sure all government agencies enforce a ban on transgender girls and women from participating in female school sports under Trump’s interpretation of Title IX, a law against sex discrimination in education.

“The war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at a signing ceremony with about 100 women and girls aligned behind him, many of the youngest ones wearing uniforms and sports jerseys.

“My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.”

The order, which is likely to face legal challenges, threatens to cut off federal funding for any school that allows transgender women or girls to compete in female-designated sporting competitions.

It would affect only a small number of athletes. The president of the National Collegiate Athletics Association told a Senate panel in December he was aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes among the 520,000 competing at 1,100 member schools.

But the issue has connected with voters, who responded with enthusiastic applause when Trump mentioned bans on transgender athletes at his campaign rallies. He repeatedly aired television advertisements that criticized allowing transgender women and girls to compete in female sports.

Polls have found a majority of Americans oppose transgender athletes competing in sports that align with their gender identity, and 25 Republican-led states have passed laws that ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports.

Federal courts have generally ruled in favor of letting transgender girls compete. A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling blocked Idaho’s ban, while the 9th Circuit and the 4th Circuit have also stopped bans from being enforced against specific plaintiffs in West Virginia and Arizona. A federal district court judge in New Hampshire has blocked that state from enforcing its ban against two plaintiffs.

But the Biden administration’s 2024 interpretation of Title IX that it protects transgender people from discrimination on the basis of sex was blocked by a federal judge in Kentucky in January.

TARGETING TRANSGENDER RIGHTS

Wednesday’s directive follows a series of other Trump executive orders restricting transgender rights, including one attempting to halt all federal support for healthcare that aids in gender transition for people under 19 and another that bans transgender people from serving in the military. Those orders encountered immediate legal challenges.

On his first day in office on January 20, Trump signed an order demanding government employees refer only to “sex” and not “gender,” and declaring sex to be an “immutable biological reality” that precludes any change in gender identity.

Trump’s order goes beyond high school and college sports, calling for the U.S. government to deny visas for transgender females seeking to compete in the United States.

It will also instruct the State Department to pressure the International Olympic Committee to change its policy, which allows trans athletes to compete under general guidance preventing any athlete from gaining an unfair advantage.

A White House official said the United States will use “all of our authority and our ability” to enforce the order in Olympic events on U.S. soil. The 2028 Summer Olympics are due to be held in Los Angeles.

The NCAA requires transgender women athletes to meet testosterone limits on a sport-by-sport basis but does not track transgender participation in school sports.

Chris Erchull, a senior staff attorney at the pro-LGBTQ legal group GLAD Law, said the various interscholastic athletics associations and coaches have successfully maintained fairness in sports for years, and banning trans athletes does nothing to ensure fairness or safety.

“We’re talking about a minuscule number of students. What’s more, we’re talking about students who aren’t posing any threat to other girls in school sports, and yet there is this enormous effort to take away their rights,” Erchull said. “It’s, it’s an absurd way to approach those goals.”

Human rights organization Amnesty International called the ban an attempt to “stigmatize and discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.”

But the order was cheered by Republicans in Congress including U.S. Representative Tim Walberg, who criticized the Biden administration for trying to “unravel decades of progress made by women to appease the most radical fringes of its own base.”