Nevada has become the latest state to curtail the participation of transgender athletes in school sports after the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) reversed a 2014 policy that allowed transgender students in high schools to play for teams that align with their gender identity.

In a near-unanimous vote on Tuesday, the group’s board — a group including parents, principals and athletic directors that governs athletics at more than 120 high schools in Nevada — passed a new policy that limits students to playing sports that align with the sex listed on their “unaltered original birth certificate.” It also scheduled an emergency meeting in May to discuss implementation.

It follows a February executive order from President Donald Trump seeking to ban  transgender athletes in women’s sports. Soon after publication of the executive order, which calls for revoking federal funds from any entities who violate it, the NCAA announced it would ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports.

The NIAA and its member school districts don’t collect data on how many transgender student athletes are participating in its sanctioned sports. In December, NCAA President Charlie Baker said that he was aware of 10 transgender athletes competing in college sports nationwide.

There is scant evidence in Nevada of transgender athletes at any level either hurting female students physically during competition or hindering their opportunities, though several female athletes publicly stated during the meeting and at the Legislature that they fear playing against transgender athletes.

Under the new policy, student athletes would be required to complete a medical form that includes signatures from the student, parent and a medical provider verifying the accuracy of the student’s birth sex. The policy states that “sex” is not synonymous for and “does not include the concept of gender identity.” 

But the new policy could potentially come into conflict with the Nevada Constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment, which was passed by voters in 2022, and guarantees equal rights regardless of gender identity. 

“The way I read this is it’s patently discriminatory on its face,” Athar Haseebullah, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said in an interview Tuesday. “Gender identity and expression were specifically included for provisions within the [Equal Rights Amendment] for a reason.”

NIAA board member Colin McNaught, the principal at Cimarron-Memorial High School in Las Vegas, was also concerned that the new policy would create fear among undocumented students. 

“I guarantee you that schools like mine will have half the athletes next school year if this is the decision we make,” he said at the meeting, before abstaining from the vote. 

The decision was cheered by Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony, a Republican who formed a task force earlier this year to “protect women’s sports.” Dozens of Nevada girls provided public comment last week in support of a bill — dead on arrival in the Democrat-controlled Legislature — to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in girls sports at Nevada schools.

“Today’s vote sends a clear message: Nevada values and protects opportunities for female athletes,” he said in a statement.

The previous policy allowed high school student athletes to participate in an NIAA-sanctioned sport that aligned with their preferred gender identity, regardless of the gender listed on their birth certificate.

Brooke Maylath, a transgender rights advocate in Nevada, said in an interview Tuesday that the policy “has worked and provided much-needed equity for those athletes in the state of Nevada.”

“That’s what sports are for … supporting others who may not be like you,” Maylath said.

During Tuesday’s meeting, NIAA legal counsel Paul Anderson said the new policy does not discriminate against transgender students.

“Nobody’s being precluded from competition, but female students and women are being protected as a result of adopting this position statement,” Anderson said. 

However, he said that the existing policy discriminates cisgender female student athletes by allowing the participation of transgender female athletes. Haseebullah called that consistent rhetoric from “conservatives right now attempting to weaponize civil rights protections in their favor.”

Anderson also argued that Trump’s executive order, which he referred to as federal law, supersedes state law. 

Haseebullah said that is an “illogical read” of executive orders because they are orders from the executive branch, not laws passed by Congress.