NEW YORK – Applauding a recent executive order that seeks to prohibit biological men from competing in women’s sports, the U.S. bishops highlighted the importance of the equal treatment of men and women, but also the need to treat transgender people “with kindness and respect.”
“We welcome the President’s Executive Order that protects opportunities for women and girls to compete in sports safely and fairly,” Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester and Bishop David M. O’Connell of Trenton said in a joint statement on Feb. 7.
The “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order applies to sports and ages across the board.
It orders the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy to convene representatives of major athletic organizations and governing bodies, and female athletes, “to promote policies that are fair and safe, in the best interests of female athletes, and consistent with the requirements of Title IX, as applicable.”
Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal funding. Under the Biden administration, guidance was issued requiring schools to allow transgender students to participate on school sports teams, as well as utilize sex-segregated facilities that align with their gender identity.
The Trump order rescinds and prohibits that approach.
“Consistent with the Catholic Church’s clear teaching on the equality of men and women, we reaffirm that, in education and in sports as elsewhere, policies must uphold human dignity,” the bishops said. “This includes equal treatment between women and men and affirmation of the goodness of a person’s body, which is genetically and biologically female or male.”
Barron and O’Connell are the chairmen of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committees on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth; and Catholic Education, respectively.
President Donald Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order on Feb. 5. The order makes it the nation’s policy to rescind funds from educational programs “that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.” The order also makes it the nation’s policy to “oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly.”
“In recent years, many educational institutions and athletic associations have allowed men to compete in women’s sports. This is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports,” Trump said in the executive order.
The executive order uses the definitions put forth in the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” order, which the president signed on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.
That executive order defines male and female along biological lines – female being “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” and male being “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”
The order also charges the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy to convene State Attorneys General “to identify best practices in defining and enforcing equal opportunities for women to participate in sports[.]”
While applauding Trump’s action, Barron and O’Connell also speak against “unjust discrimination,” particularly towards transgender individuals. They also call for assurances that students who experience gender dysphoria will still have the right to participate in activities in accord with their biological sex.
“In further recognition of the inherent dignity of the human person, the Church stands firmly against all unjust discrimination, including against those who experience gender discordance, who are equally loved by God,” Barron and O’Connell said. “Students who experience gender dysphoria bear the full measure of human dignity, and they therefore must be treated with kindness and respect.”
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