Texas AG Sues NCAA Over Transgender Women in Sports
On Sunday Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), accusing the organization of misleading college sports fans by allowing transgender women to compete in events marketed as women’s sports. Paxton says the NCAA defrauded fans who expect only athletes who were born a female to compete in women’s events, and is pursuing damages under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. He also alleged that the NCAA is misleading consumers by omitting information about which athletes are transgender, and also charges the organization of putting the safety and well being of women at risk by allowing transgender athletes to compete.
Paxton said he believed radical ‘gender theory’ had no place in college sports and to that, he was opposed to transgender women playing women’s sports. He wants the court either to limit transgender athlete participation in Texas NCAA competitions or Texas NCAA competitions involving teams from Texas or to bar the NCAA from classifying races as women’s sports if transgender women participate.
The NCAA did not directly address the lawsuit’s allegations, but insisted that it supports women’s sports. NCAA communications director Michelle Brutlag Hosick said in statement that the organization has ‘continued to invest in women’s sports, to protect fair competition in our NCAA championship events, and to promote Title IX.”
The latest in Paxton’s lawsuit comes just days after NCAA President Charlie Baker testified before lawmakers in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on transgender athletes and women’s sports. But Baker later explained that the number of transgender athletes in NCAA programs is far fewer than 10 out of the more than 500,000 athletes in the NCAA.
Many Republicans have made that the important political issue of transgender women in sports, something that has garnered a lot of attention. Both some Democratic candidates and the party’s left wing have leveraged pressure in recent days to voice their support for putting an end to trans athletes playing in women’s sports. The Biden administration also pulled back a proposed rule aimed at stopping schools from banning transgender athletes in full cold dead stop.
This year, Texas passed a law prohibiting transgender athletes from playing college sports that match their gender identity.
