“This policy change is cowardice personified, and the impact on transgender women athletes and the transgender community writ large will be profound.”
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has quietly amended its Athlete Safety Policy to bar the participation of transgender women athletes in Olympic and Paralympic events. Lambda Legal Counsel Carl Charles released the following statement:
“It is disappointing to see yet another entity, in this case the governing body of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams, engage in pre-emptive compliance with the discriminatory orders issuing forth ad infinitum from the Trump administration, with no serious consideration of the science or the impact on the targeted communities. The USOPC has removed critical and sport specific oversight from each sport’s National Governing Body and replaced it with one size fits all discrimination.
“There are tried and true policies and procedures that address the concerns some have raised, but instead of considering and evaluating these policies, the USOPC quietly slips this ban in on page five of the Athlete Safety Policy and assiduously avoids even saying “transgender,” making only an oblique reference to Executive Order 14201. USOPC leadership’s statement that they have to comply with “federal expectations” says the quiet part out loud—that this change is to appease an administration using transgender people’s lives as political pawns. This policy change is cowardice personified, and the impact on transgender women athletes and the transgender community writ large will be profound.”