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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowTwo executive orders signed Tuesday by Indiana Gov. Mike Braun seek to reinforce prohibitions for collegiate transgender athletes.
The Republican governor said the orders intend to “protect women’s sports” and “make clear that Indiana does not endorse the gender ideology that has put women’s sports in danger.”
“Women’s sports create many opportunities for young women. Allowing biological men to compete against women in female-only sports destroys those opportunities,” Braun said at a news conference. “Hoosiers overwhelmingly agree that they don’t want men competing in women’s sports.”
One of the orders requires Indiana’s Commission for Higher Education, or CHE, to review policies at the state’s colleges and universities “to ensure” the state’s educational institutions comply with the 2020 Title IX Rule, rather than former President Joe Biden’s 2024 rule that extended protections to transgender student athletes.
CHE must complete the review by Sept. 30 and publish a written report by Dec. 31.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month to ban transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ sports. The Indianapolis-based NCAA has since issued a new policy that no longer allows transgender women to compete in women’s college sports.
Legislation barring transgender women from playing on collegiate women’s sports teams is also advancing in the legislature.
House Bill 1041 would require all sports teams at Indiana’s public and private higher educational institutions to be either male, female or coeducational. Athletes assigned male at birth would be barred from participating in a “female, women’s, or girls’ team or sport.”
Colleges and universities would have to establish grievance procedures, and students who are “deprived of an athletic opportunity” or are injured as a result of violations would be able to file civil lawsuits.
Lawmakers approved a separate bill in 2022 to ban transgender girls from participating in K-12 sports.
Braun said his order “wasn’t done to dovetail any particular piece of legislation,” but rather “was to put out a clear statement on where we stand as a state,” and guarantees that Indiana’s prohibitions remain in place—given that NCAA and federal policies can “ebb and flow.”
A second executive order reiterates that state agencies must “adhere” to definitions for “sex,” “gender,” “women,” “male,” “citizen,” “individual” and “person” that are already in code.
It additionally bars the use of state funds “to promote gender ideology,” and directs agencies to “avoid using terms that obfuscate the fundamental, deeply rooted legal distinction between men and women,” including phrases like “chest feeding,” “birthing persons,” “men with periods,” and “people who menstruate.”
When asked if Hoosiers can still petition a judge to change the gender on their birth certificate, Braun said “that would probably have to be determined by the courts.”
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It’s not extreme ideology. It’s pure medicine and science.
Common sense seems to be flowing freely across our homeland again.
My vote is working!
As a parent with a daughter who competes at a high level in “women’s sports” (or as we know them in our family, “sports”), this is literally the last thing on my list of concerns for my daughter. What a waste of our state government’s efforts. This is also not on my daughter’s list of concerns. To the contrary, she is extremely concerned for the wellbeing of her peers whose circumstances (economic, race, immigration status, sexual and gender identity) are currently under attack by the government… and for her reproductive health, which our government won’t let her control alongside her doctor.
Well said CH. As parents of young women, we are watching.
The Obama fad is over.