GLAAD STATEMENT AND FACTS FOR REPORTERS ON LATEST DISCRIMINATORY AND INACCURATE EXECUTIVE ORDER TARGETING TRANSGENDER AMERICANS

GLAAD: “This administration’s latest inaccurate and incoherent piece of paper smears an entire group of Americans but does not change the law or the facts. All women and girls, including transgender women and girls, should be welcome to play sports if they want, make decisions about their own bodies, be hired for jobs they are qualified for, and be free from lawless attacks by elected officials. Anti-LGBTQ politicians with a record of abusing and silencing women and stripping their health care have zero credibility in any conversation about protecting women and girls. Every American should demand that so-called leaders stop attacking vulnerable people and start doing their jobs solving actual problems.”

(New York, NY – February 5, 2025) GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, is elevating resources and statements to counter disinformation and discriminatory efforts via executive order, including access to sports.

Resources for accurate and inclusive coverage:

GLAAD: Fact Sheet for Reporters on Transgender Participation in Sports

Gender Justice Get the Facts: Trans inclusion in sports

GLAAD Fact Sheet: Terms to avoid: “gender ideology,” “transgenderism.”

These are made-up terms used by opponents of gender diverse people in attempts to dehumanize them and justify discrimination and harassment.

Term to avoid: “biological male” or “biological female” – Biological sex characteristics are complex and not binary, and characteristics like hormones, chromosomes, and anatomy vary from person to person. Terms like “biological male” are inaccurate to describe transgender athletes and some intersex athletes.

Facts include:

• The Trump administration has amassed more than 227 attacks against LGBTQ Americans in policy and rhetoric, including recent inaccurate, graphic, inflammatory executive orders.
• Executive orders have been blocked in court as unconstitutional and illegal. Multiple orders are being challenged in court.
• Transgender people have been playing sports for decades. The NCAA and International Olympic Committee (IOC) have developed scientifically-based guidelines to ensure fairness and inclusion for at least a decade.
• NCAA President Charlie Baker testified in December that he knew of “less than 10” transgender collegiate athletes out of 510,000 total.
• IOC guidelines say there should be “no presumed advantage” based on sex assigned at birth or sex characteristics. IOC guidelines were created by experts in sports, medicine, and human rights.
• Sports bans are part of a systematic and expanding targeting of transgender people and youth that has surged to include their medically-necessary and supported health care, book bans and curriculum bans, and access to the restroom.
• Research shows states that include transgender participation have more girls participating in sports than states with bans.
• Women and girls face significant barriers in sports that have nothing to do with transgender inclusion: inequitable facilities, pay, and marketing; abusive coaches; and racist, sexist, and homophobic harassment.
• A 2024 NCAA study shows female players receive a barrage of social media harassment. 80% of abusive posts were directed at March Madness athletes, with female basketball players receiving about three times more abusive messages than their male counterparts. Ask critics of trans inclusion for their policy proposals to address these real life harms.
• The 2024 NCAA women’s basketball and WNBA seasons and championships saw their highest ratings. Two new winter women’s basketball leagues are drawing robust crowds. A new professional women’s hockey league is in its first season and recognizing contributions from diverse players. The NFL is looking into a women’s flag football league. Women’s sports are expanding. There is no evidence trans inclusion is harming any area of sport.
• Sports bans endanger all women and girls by encouraging baseless, false allegations and discriminatory, invasive screening. All women are affected by policies that scrutinize and police women’s bodies.
• Previous Trump orders inaccurately claiming there are only “two sexes” have failed to acknowledge the existence of intersex people and the impact of inaccurate orders on them. Do not confuse having an intersex trait with being transgender. Intersex people can have sex characteristics that fall outside strictly male/female bodies.
• Today is “National Girls and Women in Sports Day,” founded nearly forty years ago to celebrate the accomplishments of women and girl athletes. The Women’s Sports Foundation, which co-founded the awareness day, opposes bans on transgender participation in sports.
• “Changing the Game” (now on Hulu) features transgender student athletes in their own words and lives.
• “Here We Are” and “Southern Storybank: GLAAD research shows fewer than 30% of non-LGBTQ Americans personally know a transgender person. These resources help introduce people to transgender families to combat demonization and dehumanization. Connect with GLAAD for interview opportunities with featured families.

Statement from GLAAD
“This administration’s latest inaccurate and incoherent piece of paper smears an entire group of Americans but does not change the law or the facts. All women and girls, including transgender women and girls, should be welcome to play sports if they want, make decisions about their own bodies, be hired for jobs they are qualified for, and be free from lawless attacks by extremists in elected office. Anti-LGBTQ politicians with a record of abusing and silencing women and stripping their health care have zero credibility in any conversation about protecting women and girls. Every American should look to real heroes fighting for liberty, justice and equality for all, and demand that public officials stop attacking Americans and start doing their jobs solving actual problems.”

Trump executive orders blocked in court:

Targeting birthright citizenship: INDEFINITELY BLOCKED, “blatantly unconstitutional” (22 states in 5 lawsuits, Feb. 5)

Targeting trans inmates  – twice blocked, including Tuesday’s order barring prison officials from transferring three transgender women to men’s facilities and terminating their access to medication. (Feb. 4)

Targeting federal funding “freeze”- twice blocked, violates 50-year-old impoundment law prohibiting executive branch from holding funding appropriated by Congress (Jan. 28)

Lawsuits filed

Transgender Military Service: GLAD Law and National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) on behalf of six active duty transgender military personnel and two recruits. Lambda Legal successfully defeated Trump’s previous attempt to ban open service seven years ago.

Health care: ACLU, PFLAG, GLAM on behalf of transgender young adults and families

Lambda Legal via CBS News: “substantial confidence that much of what this administration appears determined to do will not stand. It’s blatantly defying settled law in a range of ways.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James told hospitals they would be violating state law if they stop offering care for transgender people under age 19 in response to a Trump executive order.

DEI (higher education professors, university diversity officers, city of Baltimore) “unlawfully vague” and “sowing chaos and confusion”