NCAA Prez suggests female athletes be required to use other facilities if they don’t want to share with trans players

NCAA President Charlie Baker sent a message Tuesday to female college athletes who are uncomfortable sharing locker rooms with transgender athletes, placing the responsibility for their own safety squarely on the women themselves.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on legalizing sports gambling, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., questioned Baker about the NCAA’s policies that have allowed trans athletes to compete on women’s teams. Hawley confronted Baker about the NCAA policy, which states: “Transgender student-athletes should be able to use locker rooms, showers and restrooms consistent with their gender identity.”

Baker, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, responded by insisting that other athletes have the option to find alternative accommodations if they are uncomfortable with it.

“Everyone else should have the opportunity to use other facilities if they wish,” Baker said.

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Baker added that the NCAA guidelines give institutions and organizations that host collegiate sporting events, which he referred to as “locals,” the ability to host athletes as they see fit.

“I believe our policies give people a choice in how they use their facilities,” Baker said. “We told the locals who hosted our tournaments that they need to provide accommodation for the people who play.”

Baker also initially refused to agree with the idea that biological males had physical advantages over female athletes. Asked by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., whether trans athletes had an advantage, Baker said the idea was controversial.

“There’s not a lot of research on it, but it’s certainly controversial,” Baker said.

Kennedy asked the question a second time, asking if Baker didn’t think that “a biological male has an advantage every time he competes against a biological female.”

The NCAA president changed his answer and said, “I think the way you defined it, I would agree with you.”

When Baker was asked why he and the NCAA had not taken action to change policies to prevent transgender inclusion in women’s sports, he repeatedly pointed to federal law and recent federal court rulings that would have made it possible. Kennedy loudly encouraged Baker to do something about it anyway.

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“Why don’t you go to Amazon, buy a book spine online and take a stand?” Kennedy yelled at Baker.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also criticized Baker during the hearing over the NCAA’s current pro-trans policies.

Concerned Women for America issued a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday addressing Baker’s comments.

“Charlie Baker’s time as NCAA president has demonstrated a scandalous disregard for the safety and dignity afforded to female athletes,” wrote Macy Petty, the organization’s legislative strategist. “His lack of leadership has compromised the integrity of all member institutions, and his negligence in protecting Title IX endangers female athletes. We are grateful to Senator Hawley, Senator Blackburn and Senator Kennedy for their leadership on this issue and hope that Congress takes further action to condemn the NCAA’s ongoing discrimination against women.

During the hearing, Baker referred to “five lawsuits in the last 18 months” that have allowed trans athletes to compete against biological women. But as Hawley noted, there have been no decisions explicitly directing the NCAA to allow trans athletes to compete against women or share women’s locker rooms.

One case Baker mentioned was a November ruling by Colorado District Judge Kato Crews that allowed trans volleyball player Blaire Fleming to play in the Mountain West tournament for San Jose State University after other players in the conference filed an injunction had issued an order excluding the athlete from competition.

Crews wrote that the plaintiffs’ request for an urgent delay was “unreasonable” and “would risk confusion and upend months of planning and would at a minimum adversely affect (San Jose State) and other teams participating in the tournament.”

However, Crews’ ruling did not address the question of trans inclusion on a macro level. It simply rejected a proposal that would disqualify a player and possibly an entire team from a conference tournament.

Other federal decisions on the issue in the past 18 months have focused on the problem occurring at the high school and youth levels. That includes a September ruling in Arizona that blocked a state law banning two prepubescent trans athletes from participating in girls’ sports. In April, a ruling in West Virginia blocked a law that would have prevented a 13-year-old biological male from competing in girls cross country.

Judges Landya McCafferty of New Hampshire and M. Hannah Lauck of Virginia, both appointed during the Obama administration, each issued rulings this year that allowed biological males to play on high school girls’ soccer and tennis teams . McCafferty issued an order allowing two transgender athletes to compete in New Hampshire, and Lauck ruled that an 11-year-old transgender tennis player could compete against girls her own age in Virginia.

These cases were not about the inclusion of trans athletes at the NCAA level.

There are now two ongoing lawsuits against the NCAA over its policies that have allowed trans athletes to compete against women.

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The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned NCAA President Charlie Baker about policies for transgender athletes. (AP Photo/Steven Senne/File)

Former NCAA swimmer and OutKick employee Riley Gaines is joining other female athletes in a lawsuit against the NCAA, accusing the governing body of violating her Title IX rights because of its gender identity policies. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, details the shock Gaines and other swimmers reportedly felt when they learned they would have to share a locker room with trans swimmer Lia Thomas at the 2022 championships in Atlanta.

San Jose State volleyball player Brooke Slusser, along with several other Mountain West volleyball players and former coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, filed their own lawsuit against the university and the Mountain West Conference for allowing Fleming to compete as a woman , without informing opponents or teammates about the athlete’s natural birth gender.

Both lawsuits are ongoing.

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