Cardinal Pride stands against the national attack on trans athletes and calls on Stanford Athletics to act now.

On Feb. 6, President Donald Trump signed one of his recent executive orders: “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” This order rescinds federal funds from university administrations that allow trans women to participate in sports, promotes international bans on trans women in sports and urges the Secretary of State and Homeland Security to bar trans women athletes from entering the country. 

In under one month, Trump has signed over 60 executive orders, many of which are explicit attempts to exclude trans people from society. These include banning transgender people from the military, preventing medical insurance coverage for gender-affirming care, banning trans existence from federal language and now banning them from college sports.

Cardinal Pride is the club for queer varsity athletes at Stanford, and I am a member. We feel threatened by these actions and are wondering where the voice of Stanford Athletics is in supporting athletes in our community: not just as competitors, but as human beings. We interviewed current and former Stanford athletes in our community who shared our concerns.

In an interview with Stanford track alum R. Reichenbach ‘19, we discussed the dire implications for the national trans community.

“Trans and gender diverse athletes always have and always will participate in sports. And the reality is, the threat of exclusion is not a new conversation,” she said. “The sooner politicians realize that the linguistic policing of LGBTQI+ bodies will never erase us, the sooner we can move towards legislation that might positively impact all of our lives.”

There are many athletes who know and care about trans people but are still skeptical on this specific issue because of alleged questions of “fairness.” However, large bodies of data refute the narrative that trans women have large advantages in sport. In 2021, the AP reported that many states pushing for state-wide trans athlete exclusion in public high school sports could not cite specific instances in which trans participation prompted debates over their involvement in competition. Sports regulations should aim to include the best athletes possible. This executive order has nothing to do with improving women’s sports and everything to do with limiting the freedoms of trans people.

“This is just confusing,” lacrosse player Lucy Pearson ‘26 said.

Many conservative proponents of these bans call the “issue” of trans women in sports a “war on women.” This baseless scapegoating is contradictory, given how many disparities must be  addressed in women’s sports. This specific targeting of trans women in sports while putting it under the guise of feminism and helping women is an example of Trans Exclusive Radical Feminist (or TERF) thinking. This ideology stems from racist and transphobic narratives that exclude non-white, non-cis women from feminist spaces. As such, this executive order was designed intentionally to garner support from the TERF community by falsifying a “pro-women” stance, when ironically this ideology is little more than a tool of the cis-het-patriarchy: it is clearly anti-women and anti-progress.

Source: https://stanforddaily.com/2025/03/30/the-silence-of-stanford-athletics/