Gov. Greg Gianforte is continuing to push restrictions on transgender college athletes participating in women's’ sports.
Gianforte joined eight other Republican governors in calling on the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, to reverse its decade-old policy allowing transgender women to compete on teams aligned with their gender identity.
The governors say the inclusion of trans women athletes is unfair to cisgender women. They write that “biological men are generally taller, faster, stronger and have more testosterone than biological women,” and that doesn’t change when someone transitions.
The NCAA policy requires that transgender women who want to compete in collegiate women's’ sports must first complete a full-year of testosterone suppressants and continue to take them. The policy says the idea that transgender women have a competitive advantage outside of the normal range of performance is “not supported by evidence.”
The Montana Legislature banned transgender women and girls from competing in interscholastic women’s sports in 2021. The ban stands for K-12 school sports, but the ban for college sports was struck down in court. A judge ruled that only the Montana Board of Regents that oversees the university system can set such policy.
The NCAA did not return a request for comment on the letter.
