US president Donald Trump has signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”, gives agencies, including the Justice and Education departments, wide latitude to ensure entities that receive funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration’s view, which interprets ‘sex’ as the gender someone was assigned at birth.
“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Mr Trump said at a signing ceremony on Wednesday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the order “upholds the promise of Title IX” and will require “immediate action, including enforcement actions, against schools and athletic associations” that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms.
[ Trump Gaza plan provokes international condemnation and dismissalOpens in new window ]
The timing of the order coincided with National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and is the latest in a string of executive actions from Mr Trump aimed at transgender people.
Meanwhile, thousands of demonstrators gathered in cities across the US to protest against the Trump administration’s early actions, decrying everything from the president’s immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Protesters in Philadelphia and at state capitols in Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and beyond on Wednesday waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society.
“Democracy is not a spectator sport! Do something,” said a sign held aloft by one demonstrator in Philadelphia.
The protests were a result of a movement that was organised online under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day.
Websites and accounts across social media issued calls for action, with messages such as “reject fascism” and “defend our democracy”.
Outside the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, a crowd of about 1,000 people gathered in freezing temperatures.
In Columbus, Ohio, protesters outside the Statehouse shouted: “Wake up USA! Stop the coup that’s underway!”
Demonstrations in several cities piled criticism on Mr Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.
“DOGE is not legit,” read one poster on the state Capitol steps in Jefferson, Missouri, where dozens of protesters gathered.
Members of Congress have expressed concern that DOGE’s involvement with the US government payment system could lead to security risks or missed payments for programmes such as Social Security and Medicare.
A Treasury Department official says a tech executive working with DOGE will have “read-only access”.
The Missouri protesters chanted “we will not bend down” and “we will not be silenced”.
Mr Trump has signed a series of executive orders in the first couple of weeks of his new term on everything from trade and immigration to climate change.
As Democrats begin to raise their voice in opposition to Mr Trump’s agenda, protests have also begun.
In Alabama, several hundred people gathered outside the Statehouse to protest against actions targeting LGBTQ people.
On Tuesday, Alabama governor Kay Ivey promised to sign legislation declaring that there are only two sexes, male and female — echoing Mr Trump’s recent executive order for the federal government to define sex as only male or female.
“The President thinks he has a lot of power,” the Reverent Julie Conrady, a Unitarian Universalist minister told the crowd.
“He does not have the power to determine your gender.
“He does not have the power to define your identity.” - AP
