The Trump administration didn't change the rules for one sport. It threatened to defund, decertify, and replace any sports governing body that refused to ban trans women from competition.

USA Rugby resisted for years. It had defied a World Rugby trans exclusion policy in 2020. It asked the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee for more time, for safety research, for any middle ground. The USOPC refused. Facing the prospect of federal decertification, in which Washington could displace USA Rugby and install a government-approved organization to run the sport in its place, the organization added one sentence to its bylaws: "To comply with USOPC's NGB Athlete Safety Policy, the Women's Division is limited to individuals who are assigned female at birth."

That sentence ended the rugby careers of trans women across the country, including players on the Baltimore Flamingos' Ferals team who had been told they had roster spots just months before.

The science does not support the ban. A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found trans women with at least one year of hormone therapy showed comparable physical fitness to cisgender women. In the lowest levels of competitive adult rugby, no safety data has ever shown trans women pose a risk to opponents.

Seventy-two percent of USA Rugby clubs have publicly opposed the policy. Regions have decided not to report one another, making the ban functionally meaningless in local play. No grievances have been upheld. No athlete has been officially removed.

USA Rugby CEO Bill Goren has said the policy is "negatively impacting the ethos of our game." His organization knows the ban is wrong. It complied only because the federal government threatened to take over the sport.

Sign the petition to demand USA Rugby reverse its trans ban and call on the USOPC to end its coercive pressure on inclusive sports governing bodies.