Transgender Eligibility
Understanding Eligibility for Girls and Women's Sports
Our stance on eligibility for the female sport category is that all athletes should compete in their sex category, rather than their identity category. We advocate for policies that ensure the women’s sports category is for biological females only. This page provides resources, articles, and our advocacy efforts related to category eligibility, aiming to protect the integrity, fairness and safety of girls and women’s sports. Females who don’t identify as their gender — as transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary, gender queer — regularly compete in the female sports categories. Males can too.
Nancy Hogshead’s testimony before the Delaware Senate’s Education Committee, in support of SB 215.
Here, Hogshead argues as an Olympic champion, a civil rights lawyer, and as long-time Democrat, to keep “sex” and “gender identity” as separate concepts, and that eligibility for girls and women’s sports should be based on SEX.
- “Sport achieves DEI through categories, allowing more people to play, with different abilities, ages, and body types. All categories are measurable, enforced, and not one category is based on an athletes’ identity.”
- “37% of all Delaware high school girls play sports. That’s a lot of families that are going to care about girls’ sports. These families schedule their lives around their daughter’s practices and weekend competitions and will be infuriated that you all, as Delaware legislators, aren’t standing up for them and for their families.”
- “Wheelchair athletes are much faster than runners. We prohibit athletes in wheelchairs from competing directly against runners; sports officials create separate “wheelchair” categories. This practice isn’t exclusionary or bigoted… It ensures fairness and inclusion for everyone. It’s the same when sports officials create separate sex categories, they ensure fairness and inclusion for females.”
Fair Competition in Women’s Sports
Explore our work and advocacy on maintaining fair competition in women’s sports. For a deeper dive into this topic, read more here.
Position Papers
Dive into Champion Women's thought leadership and advocacy efforts. Explore in-depth analyses and expert perspectives on critical issues affecting women in sports, led by the visionary Nancy Hogshead. Stay informed and inspired by the work shaping the future of equality in athletics. Learn more here.
Author, Significant Speeches & In The Media
Discover our extensive collection of expert-authored articles and publications analyzing transgender eligibility in sports. These resources outline our stance, emphasizing fairness and inclusion, championed by Nancy Hogshead. Explore her impactful speeches and gain insight into how our advocacy is shaping discussions in the media. For more details, check out our comprehensive list of authored content and media coverage.
