A Texas judge ruled on Tuesday night against an injunction that sought to force the NCAA to implement mandatory gender testing to keep trans athletes out of women’s sports.
Lubbock County Judge Les Hatch, a Republican, presided over a hearing brought about by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sued the NCAA over its recent revised gender eligibility policy.
The NCAA revised its policy in February to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban trans athletes from women’s and girls’ sports, now ruling that any biological male athlete is ineligible to compete in the women’s category. However, Paxton and many women’s rights activists argued the policy does not do enough to keep trans athletes out of women’s sports, and mandatory gender testing is necessary to enforce the ban.
Paxton was joined by three former women collegiate athletes impacted by trans inclusion. Former San Jose State University volleyball player Brooke Slusser, former University of Kentucky swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler and former North Carolina State University Kylee Alons all testified, sharing their own experiences of having to compete with trans athletes.
Slusser shared her experience of having to share a team, locker room and bedroom with former teammate Blaire Fleming, while Wheeler and Alons shared their experiences competing with former University of Pennsylvania Swimmer Lia Thomas.
However, Paxton’s arguments and the women athletes’ testimonies were not enough to convince Hatch to rule in favor of the injunction.
The NCAA provided a statement to Fox News Digital addressing Tuesday’s ruling.
“The Trump administration has made clear that the new NCAA policy is consistent with the Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports Executive Order. The NCAA is looking forward to another championship season getting underway for thousands of women student-athletes competing for national titles,” the statement read.
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Trump himself has not commented on the controversy surrounding the lack of gender testing in the NCAA. The president last addressed the NCAA’s policy with praise after it was amended in a Truth Social post on Feb. 6.
“Due to my Executive Order, which I proudly signed yesterday, the NCAA has officially changed their policy of allowing men in Women’s Sports – IT IS NOW BANNED! This is a great day for women and girls across our country,” Trump wrote.
Critics of the NCAA’s current policy have argued that depending on birth certificates could allow trans athletes to gain access to women’s competition via amended birth certificates.
In the U.S., 44 states do allow birth certificates to be altered to change a person’s birth sex. The only states that do not allow this are Florida, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Montana. There are 14 states that allow sex on a birth certificate to be changed without any medical documentation required, including California, New York, Massachusetts and Michigan.
The NCAA previously told Fox News Digital amended birth certificates will not be accepted as sufficient evidence to compete in women’s sports.
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Meanwhile, Slusser’s mother, Kim Slusser, who also testified at the hearing, told Fox News Digital that Hatch’s ruling was a “disappointment” but she plans to “keep fighting.”
“All of our little battles, which are not little battles, they’re big to us, I feel like we kind of lose along the way, and sadly I kind of felt that way. I was like ‘oh, is this going to be another one,’ and sure enough it is,” Kim Slusser said. “But we keep fighting on, we keep going, we know we’re going to win the big one in the end, and it is a disappointment. It’s a disappointment.”
Brooke Slusser is engaged in two separate lawsuits over the alleged situation at San Jose State. She has joined another lawsuit against the NCAA over its previous gender eligibility policy alongside Alons, Wheeler and led by Riley Gaines. Additionally, Slusser also currently leads a lawsuit against SJSU and the Mountain West Conference alongside 10 other conference players and her former assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose over the handling of Fleming.
Paxton also leads another lawsuit against the NCAA over its previous policy. Paxton filed that lawsuit in December, accusing the NCAA of “engaging in false, deceptive, and misleading practices by marketing sporting events as ‘women’s’ competitions only to then provide consumers with mixed-sex competitions where biological males compete against biological females.”
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