A woman in the Cumming, Ga., town hall meeting with Fox News’s Harris Faulkner was the only one of its kind. She asked Trump how he would handle “the transgender issue” in women’s sports as president.
During The Faulkner Focus town hall meeting on Tuesday, Trump said, “It’s such an easy question, and everybody in the room, and you know that answer.” “It’s not going to happen.”
In his answer, Trump talked about a video going viral of a transgender college volleyball player in California spike the ball at her opponent. The player was hit in the shoulder by the ball but wasn’t hurt. The transgender athlete’s team lost the match in straight sets.
Trump said about the video, “I’ve never seen a ball hit so hard.” He said that his government would “absolutely stop” schools from letting transgender students play on teams that match their gender identity.
He told her, “You can’t have it.”
Someone asked Trump how he would stop trans athletes from participating, and Trump said, “I would just ban it.”
People in the room cheered and applauded when Trump said, “The president bans it.” “You don’t let it happen.” Not a big deal.
When Trump runs for president again next year, he has said many times that transgender women and girls, whom he calls “men,” will not be able to play female sports. However, he has not explained how his administration would do this.
If he is re-elected, the former president promised in 2022 to sign a number of executive orders to fight “left-wing gender insanity” in the U.S. These orders would include one telling government agencies to stop programs that “promote” the idea that a person can change their gender. This year, the Biden administration put in place new protections for transgender students. In May, Trump said that he would undo those protections “on day one” of his presidency.
Trump was talking about the new Title IX rules from the Education Department. These rules cover discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools and education programs, but not in sports.
A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond right away to a request for comment.
Before the election in November, Trump and the Republicans have focused on transgender issues. They have flooded the country with ads that say Democrats who support transgender sports and gender-affirming health care are extremists who will hurt children if they win.
There isn’t a clear agreement on policies that affect transgender people, but a June Gallup poll found that most Americans are against rules that make it harder or impossible for minors to get gender-affirming care. Sixty-nine percent of people surveyed said they think transgender athletes should only be able to play on teams with other transgender athletes. This is up from 62 percent in 2021.
A group of editors at the Wall Street Journal said on Sunday that transgender athletes are “a 2024 sleeper issue.”
The Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ policy think tank, says that half of the country has laws that make it illegal for transgender student athletes to compete based on their gender identity. However, Republican lawmakers who support these laws have had a hard time showing examples of transgender girls competing in their states.
Republicans in the House have proposed at least three bills this Congress that would ban transgender athletes from all sports in the country. As a result, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act did not move forward in the Democratic-controlled Senate after passing the House.
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