NASHVILLE, Tenn. — About two dozen protesters gathered at the NCAA convention on Wednesday to demand that the NCAA ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
Wearing “Equality is not a game” buttons, the protesters stood on the side of one of the walking paths inside the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. Some wore T-shirts stating, “Women’s sports are for women” and “Take back Title IX.” The protest was organized by the Independent Women’s Forum and Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition.
“This is just based on fairness, returning the integrity of women’s sports and making sure that the NCAA does what’s right,” Independent Women’s Forum vice president Victoria Coley told ESPN.
Sia Liilii, former co-captain of the Nevada volleyball team, wore a camouflage “XX ≠ XY” hat. Nevada was one of four Mountain West volleyball teams that forfeited against San Jose State this past season because the Spartans reportedly had a transgender player on their roster.
“I’m here today to stand in front of the NCAA and demand that they remove discriminatory policies from women,” Liilii said.
The NCAA first adopted a policy governing transgender athlete participation in 2010. It created a pathway to participation for transgender women and men in the category that matched their gender identities. For transgender women, the policy required a year of testosterone suppression. In January 2022, the NCAA changed its policy to a sport-by-sport approach, mirroring steps taken by the United States Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee.
The policy change came at a time when the NCAA faced pressure from proponents of transgender exclusion due to University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, competing in the women’s category.
Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that was filed in March 2024, arguing that its transgender athlete policy violates Title IX. That lawsuit has been joined by 18 additional athletes, including former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser.
NCAA president Charlie Baker has said that there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes out of about 510,000 competing in the NCAA.
“We do have a situation where there is no clarity on this from a legal point of view,” Baker told reporters Tuesday. “You have federal judges ruling on individual cases. You have 26, 27 states with one set of rules [and] a bunch of other states with a whole other set of rules. I do think we would welcome some clarity somewhere on this so everyone has a general understanding about what the rules of the game are.”
Twenty-five states have passed legislation barring transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports, and two additional states have restrictive policies on the books through their high school association or a state agency.
There is no current federal law specifically pertaining to transgender athletes, but that could change. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 28 — the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 — which would amend Title IX to define sex for the purposes of athletics as determined “solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
The bill states that it would be a violation of Title IX for any recipient of federal financial assistance to allow a person who was assigned male at birth to “participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls.” This would not apply to male practice players, who are commonly used across women’s sports.
The bill next goes to the Senate for consideration.
ESPN’s Daniel Murphy contributed to this report.
