Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Win McNamee
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Republicans, Politics, Transgender, LGBTQ
Britt Jones
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Republicans, Politics, Transgender, LGBTQ
A US state has defied Donald Trump’s executive order which sees transgender athletes banned from participating in female sports.
Trump signed a slew of executive orders after returning to office in January, and one of the most controversial orders of them all involves trans people.
It sees transgender people being prohibited from serving in the military and another saw transgender women no longer housed in female prisons.
In a third transgender-focused order, which was signed on February 5, Trump ordered transgender women to be banned from competing in female sports.
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As per the 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' order, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) may have to 'change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject' before the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
It also allows the Secretary of State’s Office to pressure the IOC to amend standards 'to promote fairness, safety and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction'.
While we have a couple of years to find out whether this will happen, the order also calls for the 'immediate reinforcement' against schools and any athletic associations that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex changing rooms, as per Sky News.
Now, in an act against the order, the Illinois High School Association has defied Trump's order as Illinois has become the latest blue state to not comply.
In a public letter addressed to the state's Republican lawmakers, the IHSA President stated that to do as Trump says, they may be at risk of breaching the Illinois Human Rights Act.
Dan Tully wrote: “The Illinois Human Rights Act requires that transgender athletes be permitted to participate in events and programs aligning with the gender they identify.”
The letter shared that the association sought advice from state Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the Illinois Department of Human Rights, and that the association wants clear guidelines so that it can avoid being in violation of the differing policies.
Tully's letter went on to state that the IHSA 'simply desires to comply with the law and takes no position as to which of the foregoing is correct or whether there can be alignment between claimed federal and state law.'
Republicans have not taken this well, with representative Blaine Wilhour asking that the state’s funding is cut until they comply.
809 schools in Illinois are members of the association, and do not receive state or federal funding.
He told Fox News: “Either you believe in fair competition or you don't. The Democrat Party today... does not believe in fair competition. They put their woke ideology over protecting girls in sports.
“[The Trump administration is] going to have to engage here, and the leverage that they've got is federal funding.
“We take millions in federal funding from the government every year. And we don't really savor the situation where that would be withheld. But I'll take my chances with doing the right thing.”