Lambda Legal condemns NCAA’s capitulation on anti-trans sports rule
Officials with Lambda Legal have issued a statement condemning the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s willingness to capitulate to Donald Trump’s executive order, which the president signed on Wednesday, Feb.
5, banning transgender athletes from playing sports at schools that receive federal funds. Earlier today, NCAA President Charlie Baker issued a statement saying NCAA would be “align[ing] NCAA policy” with order banning transgender girls and college athletes from participating in all types of athletic activities, from the playground to elite intercollegiate competition.
Shortly after, Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Carl Charles issued ta written statement saying Lambda Legal “could not be more disappointed” with Baker’s willingness to ban trans athletes, noting that schools receiving federal funds constitute “the overwhelming majority of schools in our country.
Noting that Baker and NCAA leadership said the organization “strongly believes” that a clear, consistent rule of excluding these students will “best serve today’s student-athletes.” But, Charles said, “It’s hard to fathom how this can be so. “A ‘clear, consistent’ directive to exclude based on disinformation only serves to reward ignorance and prejudice, and to inflict gratuitous pain,” Charles said. “And make no mistake, the definition of sex in President Trump’s Jan.
