On 5 February 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order barring transgender women from competing in women's sports, prompting the NCAA to rule the next day that only athletes assigned female at birth are eligible. The move has devastated many trans athletes, who see it as an attack on their identities and careers.
Taylor Rey Narvasa, a former NCAA volleyball player at the University of Washington, said the ban was expected but still crushing. 'There's a difference between anticipatory grief and present grief,' she said. 'It made me feel awful, knowing my identity and existence are being debated every single day.' She now plays in the North American Gay Volleyball Association and wears her trans pride sweater to tournaments, refusing to be silenced.
Narvasa highlighted that the NCAA had already had regulations in place, such as requiring hormone treatment for a set period, which were working. She argued that the ban targets only trans women, not trans men, and comes alongside restrictions on healthcare, aiming to erase trans people from all angles. 'Sports are a livelihood, an escape, a mental health lifeline,' she said. 'Volleyball saved my life.'
Meghan Alexandra Cortez, a former NCAA swimmer at Ramapo College of New Jersey, noted that she was one of only about 10 trans athletes in the NCAA last year. 'No one cares,' she said of her fellow swimmers. 'I was completely isolated.' She began hormone therapy during college and said the ban ignores the reality that trans athletes are few and face no competitive advantage after treatment.
Both athletes expressed concern for younger trans children who just want to play sports. 'To strip that away from people is devastating,' Narvasa said, calling the executive order a 'red flag' that distracts from real threats to women's sports like lack of funding and predatory coaches.
