Nevada bans biological males from girls high school sports, matching Trump order
Transgender students can no longer compete in high school sports in Nevada based on their gender identity.
The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association voted Tuesday to change its policy on transgender athletes to mirror an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. Athletes now must compete as the gender of their birth.
The position statement passed with an 8-0 vote, with three members of the Board of Control abstaining. The policy went into effect immediately.
Nevada is at least the 27th state to institute rules intended to prohibit biological males from competing in girls sports.
“I do not think it would behoove us as a body to willfully violate” the federal order, NIAA Executive Director Tim Jackson said at Tuesday’s meeting at Legacy High School in North Las Vegas.
The NIAA will hold an emergency board meeting in May to make changes to the procedures and paperwork all athletes must fill out regarding their gender.
Cimarron-Memorial High School Principal Colin McNaught said at the meeting that he abstained from voting, in part, because of the paperwork and the requirement that students provide a birth certificate.
“There are certain groups of people that it is easy to provide another piece of paper, but there are certainly a large portion of groups that it is not,” McNaught said. “I have a new concern regarding access to athletics that we are potentially limiting to a large population of students. I have a large population of students who will not provide a birth certificate because they are afraid of what will happen if their birth certificate is not from the United States.”
Does not ‘discriminate’
The NIAA’s previous policy allowed athletes to play sports based on their gender identity, with approval from the school.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the NIAA presented its new “position statement” regarding transgender athletes’ eligibility. Students must complete a “preparticipation physical form” and provide “an unaltered original birth certificate” to participate in sports.
Students who are listed as male on their “unaltered original birth certificate” must participate in boys sports, and those who are born female must compete in girls sports.
Female students may compete in coed sports or “on a team designated for boys if there is no corresponding team available for girls, and the female student athlete qualifies for the team,” the position statement reads.
Male students who transition to female will not be allowed to compete in girls sports. NIAA legal counsel Paul Anderson said while presenting the new position statement that this policy does not “discriminate against anybody.”
“A transgender athlete is allowed to participate, but they have to participate in sports with their biological peers, and that’s important to us to keep in mind, and that takes them out of participation where they have clear physical advantages over women,” Anderson said. “That’s important to keep in mind. We aren’t telling people they can’t participate.”
The NIAA position statement reads:
“No student athlete will be denied the opportunity to participate in NIAA sanctioned sports on the basis of sex or gender identity or expression. However, due to sex-linked differences in physical development and athletic performance only sex, and not gender identity or expression, can be considered a relevant characteristic for eligibility on a girls’ or women’s team or sanctioned sport.”
‘We felt discouraged’
Nevada Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony created the Task Force to Protect Women in Sports, an initiative related to the Trump campaign’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
Anthony, a Republican, spoke at the meeting and said girls state titles in track and field “have been awarded to male athletes” and “girls have been replaced by boys and receiving high school volleyball accolades.”
The NIAA said it has not required that it be notified if a student athlete is transgender. An NIAA spokesperson said the organization has not received a complaint from a school about a transgender athlete.
Anderson said during the meeting that he has never been involved in a Level II appeal related to transgender athletes. (Level I appeals are handled by schools.)
At Tuesday’s meeting, Kendall Lewis, a girls volleyball player at Galena High School in Reno, claimed her team had to play against someone born male. Another athlete from Northern Nevada, sixth-grader Ava Chavez, also claimed during public comment to have played volleyball multiple times against someone born male.
“We felt discouraged and overlooked because why was a male allowed to compete against us knowing the obvious differences?” Lewis said. “Some of the balls this male athlete hit were hard to pass due to the power behind the swings.”
Reaction to decision
Anthony posted a statement on social media praising the NIAA’s decision: “I commend the NIAA for taking this important and courageous step. (Tuesday’s) vote sends a clear message: Nevada values and protects opportunities for female athletes. Girls deserve a level playing field, and this action helps ensure they can compete, grow and succeed without having to compromise safety or fairness.”
Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo also supported the NIAA’s decision.
“Every student, regardless of gender, is entitled to fair and safe competition in high school and collegiate sports,” he said in a statement. “For the well-being of students and the integrity of competition, I believe students should only compete with and against members of the same biological sex. As a father of two daughters, I firmly believe in protecting the sanctity of women’s sports.
“Despite attempts to politicize this issue, my philosophy is simple: women should participate in women’s sports and men should participate in men’s sports. No matter what sports team a student plays on or extracurricular activity a student participates in, every student deserves to be treated with the utmost kindness and respect — on and off the field, in and out of the classroom.”
In the current Nevada legislative session, minority Republicans have sponsored Assembly Bill 240, which calls for institutions of higher education to have athletes compete in sports based on their gender at birth.
On a recent episode of “Nevada Newsmakers,” Assemblymember Selena Torres-Fossett, D-Las Vegas, slammed Anthony and the bill.
“During the campaign season, I spent a lot of time knocking on doors, talking to Nevada voters, and this is an issue that Nevada voters were not talking to me about,” Torres-Fossett said.
She added: “Whether or not students identify as a woman in sports was not an issue that Nevada voters were prioritizing. … The lieutenant governor’s office has other responsibilities that they need to be focusing on, and it’s disappointing to see our state resources being allocated toward this political effort, when we have things that Nevada needs.”
Future concerns
McNaught brought up several concerns regarding the paperwork students must complete to participate in high school sports. A question on the form asks if the student is “eligible for girls sports.” McNaught said the question “feels a little targeted at one side.”
He also brought up concerns about several questions from a form female student-athletes need to fill out regarding their menstrual cycle.
“Are we putting our students in an uncomfortable situation by having to provide this information?” McNaught asked.
Rollins Stallworth, the board’s Region I vice president, shared McNaught’s concerns regarding students having to provide a birth certificate.
“No question, we’ll have less kids participating right now if we require an official birth certificate for kids to participate,” Stallworth said.
No date has been set for the emergency meeting. The board voted to have the meeting before the summer Board of Control meetings in June, with students beginning to register for the new school year in May and fall sports starting intramurals in June.
“I’m worried that we don’t have an answer here as to how to enforce our new position statement without limiting the ability for kids to participate, and that’s incredibly disappointing,” McNaught said.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X. Review-Journal reporter McKenna Ross contributed to this story.
