Incoming NCAA president Charlie Baker speaks during the NCAA Convention, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
- The 28 GOP attorneys general sent a letter to the NCAA President Tuesday urging them to restore the titles to the appropriate female athletes.
Republican attorneys general across the nation, led by Mississippi’s Lynn Fitch, are calling on the NCAA to strip biological male athletes of any records, titles, awards, and recognitions they received while competing in women’s sports while restoring the titles to the appropriate female athletes.
In a letter from 28 attorneys general to NCAA President Charlie Baker sent Tuesday, Fitch and her colleagues say the policies that were created, promoted, and encouraged by the Biden Administration and the NCAA not only enabled biological men to compete against women in sporting events across the country, but denied deserving women the recognitions they had earned in events that you managed.
The group noted the steps the NCAA has taken since President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. However, the attorneys general tell Baker there is “far more the NCAA can do for the women athletes that have competed and continue to compete in your events.”
“There is no doubt that the women forced to compete against biological males in female events were impacted negatively and unfairly disadvantaged,” Fitch and the others write, adding, “We urge the NCAA to develop a plan to restore all appropriate recognitions to the women athletes who were wrongfully denied all that they earned.”
In a statement, Attorney General Fitch said female collegiate athletes trained, competed, and triumphed, only to see their recognitions stripped away and devalued by unfair policies that ignored biology.
“I am grateful to be joined by my colleagues from across the country and the Trump administration as we support these women and urge that their records be corrected, restoring the honors they earned,” Fitch said.
In February, the NCAA updated its “Participation Policy for Transgender Student Athletes,” which limits competition in women’s sports to student athletes “assigned female at birth only.” Fitch and the other attorneys general believe the NCAA should extend this policy to practice as well as “injuries from unfair biological advantages are just as real in practice.” They say the policy stops short of full fairness for women athletes.
In related news Tuesday, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee effectively banned men from competing in women’s sports, saying it has an “obligation to comply” with President Trump’s executive order.
You can read the attorneys general letter to the NCAA in full here.
Frank Corder
