If not through their constitution, the NCAA needs to show us their playbook for protecting LGBTQ+ and specifically transgender athletes from discrimination. The NCAA has so far proven to be an unreliable ally to LGBTQ+ athletes across the country who depend upon the organization to protect them from discrimination and now they owe these athletes answers. Their inaction is giving extremist legislators across the country precisely what they want and need to advance a discriminatory agenda targeting LGBTQ+, and particularly transgender, people: their silence, which provides the cover to push radical policies. Look no further than Indiana’s religious refusal law in 2015 or the 2017 HB2 bathroom bill in North Carolina to see the impact NCAA action can have in defeating discriminatory legislation. Unfortunately, the past two years have been a disastrous example of what happens when the NCAA does nothing meaningful to stand up to this historic discriminatory effort.

The NCAA’s new policy on transgender participation is equally concerning, particularly given that it came as a surprise to advocates who had been engaging with the NCAA on this issue. Their rollout of this policy has left many athletes and individual sports programs confused, concerned, and uncertain about their own future. The NCAA refusing to take responsibility for ensuring that LGBTQ+ athletes, women, and athletes of color have safe, equitable ability to participate in athletics puts schools and conferences in an impossible position and makes it more difficult to enforce fairness amidst an ever-changing patchwork of state laws across the country. The NCAA’s unresponsiveness, unwillingness to re-implement common sense language, and inability to enforce their own policies to protect athletes vulnerable to discrimination are all deeply disappointing and dangerous. We know they are capable of better.”