Gov. Braun signs executive orders that take aim at ‘extreme gender ideology,’ participation in women’s sports

INDIANAPOLIS- Indiana Gov. Mike Braun signed two executive orders on Tuesday, both of which take aim at what Braun calls “extreme gender ideology” as well as the prohibition of transgender women from competing in female-only sports in the state of Indiana.

According to a news release from Braun’s office, Braun said these two orders “ensure fairness in women’s sports” and reject “extreme gender ideology in favor of the scientific reality of biological sex.”

In February, the NCAA changed its policy for transgender athletes, limiting competition in women’s sports to only those who were assigned female at birth, according to reports from the Associated Press.

This comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year that gave federal agencies the ability to withhold funding from entities that do not abide by the interpretation of Title IX that interprets “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth.

Tuesday’s announcement continues Braun’s recent trend of issuing executive orders. On Monday, Braun signed an order that would strengthen paid parental leave for state of Indiana employees. Braun has also signed orders surrounding immigration, healthcare as well as diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

The two orders announced on Tuesday include:

Executive Order 25-35: Protecting Opportunities in Post-Secondary Women’s Sports

The release said that this order mandates that Indiana’s state educational institutions are required to comply with the 2020 Title IX rule. Braun said this order ensures that female athletes in college sports are not forced to compete against biological males.

Braun said in the release that he believes this preserves the integrity of women’s athletics and protects opportunities for women in female-only sports leagues.

“Women’s sports create opportunities for young women to earn scholarships and develop leadership skills,” Braun said in the release. “Hoosiers overwhelmingly don’t want those opportunities destroyed by allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports, and today’s executive order will make sure of that.”

Executive Order 25-36: Ensuring Indiana Law is Based on the Reality of Biological Sex Rather than Extreme New Gender Theories

The release said this order makes “clear” that the state of Indiana “will not go along with… extreme gender ideology.”

“Replacing the scientific fact of biological sex with the always-changing, self-reported idea of ‘gender identity’ has real consequences: it puts women in danger in female-only spaces like prisons, it destroys opportunities for women in sports and it tells troubled kids that their mental health problems can be solved with sterilizing drugs and irreversible sex change operations,” Braun said in the release. “Indiana will not go along with this radical new idea of what gender means, and we will not allow tax dollars to be used to promote this ideology — instead, we’re going to focus on providing freedom and opportunity for all Hoosiers.”

Federal legislation that would ban trans athletes from girls’ and women’s sports teams recently failed to advance in the U.S. Senate. According to reports from the Associated Press, the bill would have determined Title IX protections “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”

According to previous reports, the Indiana General Assembly passed Senate Bill 480 in 2023, which served as a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. That bill officially went into effect in February 2024 after a federal injunction prevented the law from going into effect for a year.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.