On February 5, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” setting out the administration’s policy to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities” and to “oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly.” The order follows a prior order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which directed federal agencies to enforce laws governing sex-based rights and protections to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes and rejected the application of Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) to Title IX. It also follows the recent Dear Colleague Letter from the Office for Civil Rights, which confirmed that OCR will enforce the 2020 Title IX Rules.  

The February 5 order directs the Secretary of Education, in coordination with the Attorney General, to take appropriate action to ensure that the 2024 Title IX Rules “do[ ] not have effect.” The order also directs the Secretary of Education to “take all appropriate action to affirmatively protect all-female athletic opportunities and all-female locker rooms.” This includes revising regulations and policy guidance to specify and clarify that women’s sports are reserved for biological women.  

Additionally, the order directs the Secretary of Education to “prioritize Title IX enforcement actions against educational institutions (including athletic associations composed of or governed by such institutions) that deny female students an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them, in the women’s category, to compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males.” This directive appears to target both competition on women’s teams and use of women’s locker rooms. Finally, the order directs all executive departments and agencies to review grants to educational programs and, where appropriate, rescind funding to programs that fail to comply with the policy established in this order.  

In response to these orders, OCR has received new complaints and opened several investigations: 

Bathrooms and Locker Rooms Investigations 

• Denver Public Schools: Investigating the conversion of a female bathroom to an all-gender bathroom at a high school.  

• Several public school districts in Virginia: America First Legal requested that OCR open investigations target policies allowing for students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.  

Athletics Investigations  

• San Jose State: Prompted by a player’s participation on the women’s volleyball team.  

• The University of Pennsylvania: Prompted by the participation of an athlete on the women’s swim team who won a Division I title in 2022.  

• Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association: Prompted by a player on the girls’ basketball team at a participating high school.  

While the NCAA quickly announced its new policy to conform with the executive order, other institutions have indicated they will continue to allow athletes to participate on the team that aligns with their gender identity. Inconsistent adoption of the new policy is expected because executive orders indicate how agencies will enforce the law but are not themselves law, and courts in several jurisdictions have already found that Title IX and/or the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment allow or require education institutions to allow students to use facilities and participate on teams consistent with their gender identity.  

Just as states and interest groups sued to challenge the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX and the 2024 Title IX Rules, we anticipate other states and groups may challenge the interpretation of Title IX in the recent Trump Administration executive orders. It is likely that  courts will continue to play a central role in determining the scope and meaning of Title IX.  

Please join us on February 12, 2025, at 1:00 CST for our free TacTIX webinar, where we will further discuss these changes.