One of the most iconic images of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House thus far came last week after he signed an executive order barring males from competing in women’s sports. Surrounded by women of all ages, some of whom were directly affected by the erasure of sex-exclusive spaces and teams under the Biden administration, Trump held up the order with a big grin on his face.
Who could blame him? The order was a layup for his administration, with nearly 80% of the country in support of it.
Why Michigan officials would want to plant their flag with the other 20% is beyond me.
In a statement responding to Trump’s order last week, the Michigan High School Athletic Association announced it would “continue to go with our policy as is,” which allows transgender athletes to compete on girls’ sports teams on a case-by-case basis. MHSAA spokesperson Geoff Kimmerly cited Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act as justification, arguing MHSAA needs “more clarification” on what Trump’s order means for the state law.
“We’re just waiting for the next step I suppose,” Kimmerly said. “Obviously there’s a conflict here, and it’s going to have to be worked out one way or another.”
In 2023, Michigan’s Democratic supermajority revised the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include specific protections for “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression.” So Kimmerly is right that the issue will make its way to the courts eventually, either in Michigan or in another state where gender ideology has been enshrined into law similarly.
What we do know is the courts are likely to hold that Title IX—a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education, which is the legal basis for Trump’s order on transgender athletes—takes precedence over competing state civil rights law. And before anyone argues Title IX can coexist with gender-identity-based protections, remember that a federal judge struck down the Biden administration’s attempts to weasel “gender identity” into Title IX in a ruling right before Trump took office.
In other words, it doesn’t take a law degree to recognize which way the legal and cultural headwinds are blowing. Gender ideology is losing—badly.
That reality seems to be sinking in at the national level. For example, the NCAA, one of the nation’s leading athletic governing bodies, quickly seized Trump’s order as an opportunity to align its participation policies with majority sentiment, announcing it would ditch gender ideology and return to a biology-based standard.
And there are at least some Michigan officials who seem to grasp this new reality as well. It’s telling, for instance, that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has not filed a legal challenge against Trump’s order barring males from women’s sports when she seems to have made it a priority to challenge just about every single other order he’s signed. In fact, she hasn’t said a peep about it in public. Neither has Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who signed the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act’s expansion in 2023.
Meanwhile, MHSAA stands to lose a lot of support from the very institutions that make it relevant: Michigan’s public schools. Trump’s order makes it clear the Education Department will investigate and even remove federal funding from school districts that refuse to comply with his directive. It’s extremely unlikely, then, that the MHSAA will find much support from individual schools should it continue to delay.
There simply is no good reason for the MHSAA to commit itself to the fringe position on this issue. And make no mistake: That’s exactly what the organization is trying to do. Kimmerly has dismissed criticism of MHSAA’s participation policy in the past as one big nothingburger, insisting it’s no big deal since there are only two trans-identified males currently competing on girls’ sports teams in the state.
But Kimmerly and the MHSAA are missing the point. It doesn’t matter how many boys the MHSAA has allowed into girls’ sporting events. What matters is the dozens of girls who have been required to compete with and against them, thereby stripping them of their right to their own private spaces and teams.
Michiganders made it clear last November that they’re tired of trampling women’s rights to appease the radical few. And now Trump has given the MHSAA and the schools it represents the opportunity to get in line. Let’s hope they’re smart enough to do it.
Kaylee McGhee White is editor-in-chief of Independent Women Features, a Steamboat Institute media fellow, and a columnist for Michigan Enjoyer. Follow her on X @KayleeDMcGhee.
