The regents who govern Georgia’s 26 public colleges and universities voted Tuesday to ask the NCAA and the National Junior College Athletic Association to put a ban in place on transgender athletes participating in women’s sports.
The vote was unanimous. Reportedly, the vote was instigated by Republican Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’ oath to ban men who think they are women from women’s sports (via the New York Post):
The officials expect the NCAA and the National Junior College Athletic Association to conform to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ rules, which largely banned transgender women from sports in April.
Under the NAIA’s new policies, the only athletes permitted to participate in women’s sports are those assigned female at birth and have not undergone hormone therapy. All athletes are still allowed to participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports.
Of the 25 schools with sports programs under the regents, four are members of the National Junior College Athletic Association, five are members of the NAIA and the remaining 16 are in the NCAA. This includes the college football powerhouses Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, which are both in the NCAA.
In a statement, Jones applauded the regents for protecting “the work female athletes put into competing.”
In 2022, Georgia held the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships where so-called “transgender” athlete Lia Thomas robbed women of awards.
At the championships, Thomas tied with University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who is now a spokeswoman for Independent Women’s Forum with a focus on protecting women’s sports.
As Townhall covered, Thomas got to keep the trophy while Gaines left empty-handed.