The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association announced it would no longer allow high school athletes to compete on the basis of “gender identity,” bringing the state into compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order banning biological males from participating in women’s sports.
The NIAA, Nevada’s top governing body for high school sports, reversed a state-wide policy on Tuesday that had permitted transgender athletes to play on teams based on their gender identity instead of their biological sex.
The 2014 policy was overhauled in a near-unanimous vote during an NIAA board meeting. Under the new policy, student-athletes must play only on teams that align with their “unaltered original birth certificate.”
“I commend the NIAA for taking this important and courageous step,” Nevada Republican Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony said in a statement. “Today’s vote sends a clear message: Nevada values and protects opportunities for female athletes. Girls deserve a level playing field, and this action helps ensure they can compete, grow, and succeed without having to compromise safety or fairness.”
“Let me be clear, there is a place for everyone in sports. But no one is entitled to a position that takes an opportunity away from someone else,” he continued.
Anthony’s words were echoed by NIAA legal counsel Paul Anderson, who said the new policy does not discriminate against transgender students.
“Nobody’s being precluded from competition, but female students and women are being protected as a result of adopting this position statement,” Anderson said.
During the meeting, one board member similarly argued that the new policy protects biological female athletes from discrimination.
“I am a mother of two female athletes. I also have a sister-in-law who is transgender. I knew her when she was living as a biological male, and I have had the privilege to see her grow and blossom into the beautiful woman that she is today,” the board member said. “This is not an issue that I take lightly. There are … definitely mental health components to this for our transgender athlete, but I do not see this as a law that hurts our transgender athletes. This is something that we as a board need to look at as we are protecting our biological female athletes.”
The change comes after Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 5 called “Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports,” prohibiting schools receiving federal funding from allowing athletes to play in sports corresponding to the opposite biological sex.
States that have challenged the order, including California and Maine, are being investigated by the federal government and have been warned that continued defiance could bring prosecution.
Critics argue Nevada’s new policy discriminates against transgender students. It could also conflict with the Nevada Constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment, which was passed in 2022 and extends protections to residents based on gender identity.
“The way I read this is it’s patently discriminatory on its face,” Athar Haseebullah, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, told the Nevada Independent Tuesday. “Gender identity and expression were specifically included for provisions within the [Equal Rights Amendment] for a reason.”
One NIAA board member suggested during the meeting that she believed revising the policy didn’t discriminate against transgender students who had previously played on teams based on their gender identity because they would still have the opportunity to play on teams aligned with their biological sex.
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“I think Mr. Anderson had made the statement that he sees our current policy as discrimination,” she said. “I kind of agree with that because when I look at the idea of equality and gender identity versus sex, we’re still giving the kids with gender identity an equitable opportunity to compete with their biological sex, but we’re putting girls possibly in danger and not giving them an equitable audience to compete based on biological attributes that males have.”
“As long as we allow the kids that you have or as well, to protect the kids with gender identity in their biological sport, they still have a chance to compete. I’m concerned about where I see the discrimination at, which is the girl’s sports and allowing biological males to compete. So, that’s where I personally see the inequity,” she added.
