NWLC condemns U.S. Olympics banning trans women athletes

WASHINGTON — The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee recently issued a policy complying with President Trump’s lawless, transphobic executive order calling for sporting organizations to exclude transgender girls and women from competition.

Without any process or clarity about its decision, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has let Trump rewrite its rules in a cruel effort to deny transgender women the opportunity to participate.

Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, issued the following statement in response:

“The world is watching with alarm at the loss of freedom and opportunity in our country, especially as the United States is expected to host future Olympic events. The Committee will learn — as so many other institutions have — that there is no benefit in appeasing the endless, shifting, and petulant demands coming out of the White House.

“By giving into the political demands, the USOPC is sacrificing the needs and safety of its own athletes. The vagueness of the Committee’s policy will leave athletes unprotected from humiliating sex-testing practices. Athletes will now be subject to intrusive questioning and demands for traumatizing physical exams as they prove they are women enough to play. The USOPC should devote its energy to the real and serious disparities harming women athletes: fewer chances to participate across all sports compared to boys and men; worse facilities, coaching, and equipment placing girls and women at greater risk of injury; and endemic sex harassment and assault perpetrated against women athletes.”