A New Jersey agency that oversees sports across the state’s schools is refusing to change its policy on trans athletes’ participation in athletics. The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) is standing their ground and decidedly letting trans athletes continue to compete in school sports. They have confirmed they would not be making any changes to the standing policy, defying President Trump’s executive orders.
Trump’s executive order entitled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” bans trans women and girls from competing in girl’s and women’s sports and threatens to revoke federal funding from educational programs that do not comply. The directive gives the Department of Education license to investigate schools in question.
Various educational institutions across the country are currently under investigation by the Department of Education for alleged Title IX violations in relation to trans athletes, including schools in Maine, California, and Minnesota.
Organizations under investigation include the California Interscholastic Federation and Minnesota State High School League following decisions from the two to continue allowing trans students to compete in school athletics based on their gender identity instead of their assigned sex at birth.
The organizations responded to the investigations stating they would follow state anti-discrimination laws, despite comments from a Trump Administration spokesperson saying the executive order would override state law.
Steve Goodell, legal counsel for NJSIAA, said the organization’s policy is “designed to be consistent with state law.” At an NJSIAA executive committee meeting last week Goodell said challenges on trans athletes should be “between the school, student, and state.”
The NJSIAA current stance dates back to a policy amendment made in 2017 that states “a transgender student, defined as a student whose gender identity differs from the student’s sex assigned at birth, shall be eligible to participate in accordance with either their birth sex or in accordance with their gender identity, but not both.”
