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Thursday marked exactly four months since President Donald Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order. But incidents of trans inclusion in girls’ and women’s sports continue to persist across the country.
Democrat-stronghold states like California, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington have openly defied the order and deferred instead to their state laws on the issue, resulting in national controversies involving biological males competing in and often dominating high school girls’ sports in recent months.
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The Trump administration has launched investigations and even filed lawsuits to counter this wave of incidents. But press secretary Karoline Leavitt has suggested the administration could go a step further.
In an April 18 press conference, while discussing Maine’s defiance on the issue, Leavitt asserted Trump’s order and Title IX as federal law, noting that violators could be “prosecuted.”
Since then, many Democrat-controlled states like Maine and California have refused to acquiesce to Trump’s demands.
Former NCAA swimmer and conservative influencer Riley Gaines, the leading figure in the national movement to keep males out of women’s sports, told Fox News Digital that she would support prosecution as a response to the issue.
“I would love to see prosecution because I believe what is happening is criminal,” Gaines said. “The way that we have been told that a man’s feelings matter more than our physical safety, than our rights to participate, to call ourselves champions, I believe that is a criminal action, therefore I believe it is a criminal offense.
“Someone somewhere has to be made an example of, otherwise you will have the woman-hating Democratic Party continue with full steam ahead.
Gaines, who infamously tied with trans swimmer Lia Thomas in the 2022 NCAA women’s championships, was only one of many women who were impacted by Thomas’ participation. The event was hosted at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Gaines said she believes that the school’s president, Angel Cabrera, is one of the first that should be in line for prosecution over the issue.
“I believe university officials should be charged. I believe certainly that in the state of Georgia, that the Georgia Tech president, who has continued to be very smug, who has continued to not attest or answer to any of the claims that we are making that happened on his pool deck,” Gaines said of those who should be prosecuted.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Georgia Tech for comment.
Gaines leads a lawsuit against the NCAA over her experience with Thomas alongside several other women’s swimmers who competed in the 2022 championships. Those plaintiffs include former University of Kentucky swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler and former University of North Carolina swimmer Kylee Alons.
Wheeler and Alons both agree with Gaines in supporting criminal prosecution against officials who have allowed trans athletes to compete in women’s sports.
“I think that if schools, official states, whatever it is, are knowingly defying the law and violating Title IX especially by forcing girls to share locker rooms, change in front of boys, lose out on their opportunities, everything Title IX is supposed to stand for, I think there should be serious consequences,” Wheeler told Fox News Digital.
“We’re not just talking about policy disagreements, this is about knowingly stripping rights away from women and girls. If you break federal law there should be consequences like Riley said, and if that means prosecution in some of these states, then yeah, bring it on.”
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Alons questioned how one could not be in favor of prosecution against those officials.
“When you see the harm that this is causing women and girls, how could you not want to support prosecuting defying this?” Alons told Fox News Digital. “There’s just so much harm being done and obviously there is a law for a reason, because it is causing harm so I would definetely support more action than just empty threats.”
The attorney representing Gaines, Wheeler, Alons and other women in their lawsuit against the NCAA, William Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, not only supports the notion of prosecuting officials letting the issue continue, but believes it’s “necessary.”
“At this point there’s no excuse, the executive order has been in place since February 5,” Bock told Fox News Digital. “People have known for four months now, and if three-four months later, you’re still knowingly defying federal law, then of course a prosecution makes sense, and it’s evidently necessary to protect women.”
So far, Trump’s enforcement of his executive order has only extended to a funding freeze to the University of Pennsylvania, where Thomas competed, temporary funding pauses against Maine that have since ended, and a Department of Justice lawsuit against Maine too.
Trump’s administration has launched investigations against three other state high school sports leagues (California, Minnesota and Massachusetts) and the DOJ has given California a deadline of this upcoming Monday to amend its policies that allow trans athletes in girls’ sports.
Gaines, Wheeler and Alons all find Trump’s stance on the issue “refreshing” but would generally like to see more action.
“Hopefully we’ll see enough with the warnings, that’s how I feel,” Gaines said. “We’re ready to see some action.”
Wheeler added, “The executive order is a good start, but we need more than that signature, we need really enforceable protection that will supersede his presidency… it’s a step in the right direction, but we’re not satisfied.”
At the college level, Trump’s executive order resulted in a change to the NCAA’s gender eligibility policy just one day after the order was signed. Unlike the old policy, the new policy asserts that only females can compete in the women’s category in official competition.
However, the new policy has come under heavy criticism by women’s rights activists since it was signed for offering no tangible outline of how it will enforce the policy, and a lack of enforcing gender testing.
In late March, Ithaca College in New York admitted to letting a trans athlete compete in a Division III rowing competition, telling Fox News Digital that the participation of the trans athlete was due to a “misunderstanding” by the coaching staff about what was considered an official NCAA event, and referenced the policy’s allowing of male practice players.
Ithaca College competes in the I Eights Grand Final during the Division III Rowing Championship held at Nathan Benderson Park on May 29, 2021, in Sarasota, Florida. (Justin Tafoya/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
The NCAA has provided a statement to Fox News Digital, saying the competition the Ithaca trans athlete competed in “will be considered a mixed team and not eligible to compete against women’s teams. Ithaca stated their intent to adhere to the policy which allows for practice opportunities and the NCAA appreciates Ithaca’s responsiveness.”
But the NCAA did not indicate that the results of the event would be voided or that Ithaca would face any consequences.
The initial goal of the Gaines vs. NCAA lawsuit was to force the governing body to keep biological males out of women’s college sports entirely. In the wake of the policy change, the lawsuit’s goal remains intact but also expanded.
“We’ve reached out to the NCAA and their attorneys and we’ve given them the opportunity to resolve this matter at least, if we can’t reach an agreement on accountability for the past, to put in place a policy that actually protects women and has some enforceability behind it and ensures that only women participate in college women’s sports,” Bock said.
“We put that in writing and they haven’t gone down that route with us… their policy is toothless and ineffective and doesn’t protect the rights of women.”
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Bock added that their lawsuit will also be seeking monetary damages for all the female athletes who have been affected.
“These are significant damages and there were several hundred women were harmed and we think that a jury in Georgia is going to find that damage amount very significant.”
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