VIRGINIA (DC News Now) — The Virginia High School League (VHSL) announced Monday that it would limit competition in girls’ sports to students assigned female at birth.
The policy change is a reversal from its stance last week, during which it maintained that transgender girls would be allowed to participate in girls’ high school sports teams.
VHSL made the change to comply with President Donald Trump’s Executive Order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which he signed on Feb. 5.
“[Trans women participating on these teams] is demeaning, unfair and dangerous to women and girls and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports,” Trump wrote in the order.
The order restricts federal funding from programs that do not comply with the order, keeping those assigned male at birth from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams.
At the time of the order, VHSL’s director of communications said, “We have not seen or received anything regarding the Executive Order. We will continue following the current policy and the current law in Virginia.”
However, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin made social media posts on X urging VHSL to follow the order.
“The Virginia High School League must change course immediately … Virginia schools are at risk of losing millions of dollars in federal school funding if the VHSL doesn’t comply with President [Trump]’s Executive Order protecting girls sports,” Youngkin wrote at the time, in part.
As part of their announcement on Monday, Feb. 10, VHSL Executive Director Dr. John W. Haun stated, “The VHSL is an association comprising 318 member schools with more than 177,000 students participating yearly in sports and academic activities. The VHSL is the governing body, and our member schools look to and rely on the VHSL for policy and guidance.”
“To that end, the VHSL will comply with the Executive Order. The compliance will provide membership clear and consistent direction,” he continued.
The policy change would take effect immediately, VHSL noted.
