LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The NCAA on Wednesday adopted a sport-by-sport approach for transgender athletes, bringing the organization in line with the U.S. and International Olympic Committees.

Leaders of local Fairness Campaigns said the new policy creates more barriers and essentially is a step backward.

What You Need To Know

  • The NCAA's Board of Governors voted on a change in policy on Wednesday

  • This policy now allows a sport-by-sport approach to transgender athlete participation

  • The new policy is effective immediately

  • Louisville's Fairness Campaign said this creates more of a barrier for these athletes

“It puts an undo burden on our trans young people that just want to play sports," said Chris Hartman, Fairness Campaign's executive director.

The new policy, which is effective immediately, now allows for a sport-by-sport approach in trans student-athlete participation. The national governing body for each sport determines participation.

Hartman said it's all a step backward, opening the door to invasive medical exams for athletes when their gender may be questioned.

“The danger of all of this is that it doesn’t just put an undo burden on some of the most marginalized members of our community – it does that. But it also does really endanger women who play sports all across the board to be subjected to invasive medical exams when their gender is questioned for whatever reason," Hartman said.

The NCAA said the decision comes to align policies with those of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic as well as International Olympic committees. They said 80% of those athletes are current or former college athletes. 

“There’s so many reasons people want to participate in sports and we should be allowing all of our youth to participate in sports where they feel comfortable and it matches their gender identity – meaning the gender that they live every day," Hartman said.

Hartman said work still needs to be done, even outside of the realm in sports.

He mentioned that only some municipalities in the Bluegrass State have local non-discrimination ordinances that cover sexual orientation and gender identity. Some of these cities are Lexington, Louisville, Paducah and Covington, but it's not seen statewide.

“Trans folks already face so many disproportionate difficulties and discrimination in daily life," he said. "We should not be putting up more barriers to folks to participate fully in all aspects of school and life every day."