Every contagion has a potential cure. Gender dysphoria, the mental condition, is a real thing. This mental illness has been recognized for decades and historically treated with therapy. The "transgender" agenda and the social contagions of gender theory and gender ideology are only tangentially related to actual gender dysphoria.
Unlike the actual mental illness, the social contagion is causing actual no-kidding harm to people who are not afflicted by it directly. It's causing harm to girls and women in sports (and locker rooms), it's causing harm to women inmates in prisons, and it's causing damage to the readiness of our armed forces. The Trump administration may well be the cure to this contagion.
On Wednesday, the president signed an order barring men and boys from participating in women's and girls' sports teams in any school or university under Title IX. My colleague Teri Christoph broke that news yesterday, and the president made it clear that this wasn't a symbolic measure.
See Related: BREAKING: Trump Signs Historic Order Protecting Women’s Sports
Teri writes:
In the lead up to the signing, the president put any school receiving taxpayers money on notice that they will be investigated if they let "men take over women's sports teams."
President Trump:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 5, 2025
"We are putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice that if you let men take over women's sports teams or invade your locker rooms you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding." pic.twitter.com/CI4AoiTvxv
The responses in this matter have been quick and encouraging; the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is examining the president's order and determining steps to comply.
NCAA President Charlie Baker responded to the executive order in a statement, saying it provided a "clear, national standard."
Baker said the NCAA Board of Governors would review it and take steps to align the organization’s policy in the coming days.
"The NCAA is an organization made up of 1,100 colleges and universities in all 50 states that collectively enroll more than 530,000 student-athletes," the statement said. "We strongly believe that clear, consistent and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today's student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, President Trump's order provides a clear, national standard.
"The NCAA Board of Governors is reviewing the executive order and will take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the coming days, subject to further guidance from the administration. The Association will continue to help foster welcoming environments on campuses for all student-athletes. We stand ready to assist schools as they look for ways to support any student-athletes affected by changes in the policy."
The administration is already taking action against schools that are reportedly ignoring the order.
President Donald Trump's Department of Education (DOE) launched an investigation into potential Title IX violations that occurred at multiple educational institutions, hours after he signed an executive order to ban trans athletes from women's sports.
The Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) will be investigating San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) for separate incidents involving trans athletes competing on a women's or girls' sports team.
This should go a long way towards stopping this hideously unfair practice. But more challenges remain. The president has already attempted to close one window that allows men claiming to "identify" as women to take unfair and even criminal advantage of a situation by demanding to be placed in women's prisons. There have already been legal challenges, and RedState's Streiff accurately called it lawfare in a piece penned on Wednesday.
See Related: Lawfare Resumes: Judge Blocks Trump's Order Sending Transgender Prisoners to the Correct Prison
A federal judge has ordered a temporary halt to the Bureau of Prisons's attempt to comply with President Trump's executive order stopping transgender treatments of prisoners and ordering prisoners back to the prison of their correct gender. This is the second ruling by a federal judge defending the right of male prisoners detained in female prisons to abuse female inmates because their rights are more important than the safety and dignity of women prisoners. The first was in Massachusetts (you just knew it was going to be Massachusetts or California, didn't you?), but that ruling applies only to the inmate who brought the suit.
There are more issues, and they will no doubt be addressed by the administration in time.
See Related: Do We Have a Transgender Violence Problem?
There's a very real problem with these issues, and that is that they are a cruel and unnecessary distraction from the few people who genuinely suffer from gender dysphoria. There are such people, and historically, many have been treated with therapy and usually gone on to lead normal lives. But the onset of "gender theory" has normalized chemical castration and surgical mutilation as the alternative to therapy - and in some circles, being "trans" -- or worse, having a "transgender kid" -- has become a fad.
The Trump administration can't do a lot about the social contagion itself. But they can do something about some of the more overtly damaging practices, and as they do, it's possible the zeitgeist may change as well; maybe the contagion will slowly fade, allowing those few people who are actually suffering to get the help they need without being bombarded with gender ideology propaganda.
