VHSL says it’s not banning transgender women from women’s high school sports teams

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The Virginia High School League (VHSL) announced that, as of Thursday, it is not following President Donald Trump's recent executive order and will continue to allow transgender women to play on women's high school sports teams. On Wednesday, Feb. 5, Trump issued an executive order meant to keep those assigned male at birth from playing on girl's and women's sports teams. It does this by, in part, keeping federal funding from programs that do not comply. "[Trans women participating on these teams] is demeaning, unfair and dangerous to women and girls and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports," Trump wrote in the order. On Thursday, Feb. 6, a spokesperson for the VHSL told 8News that it will not be removing transgender women from any of its women's high school sports teams. NCAA bans transgender women student-athletes from women’s teams "We have not seen or received anything regarding the Executive Order," Mike McCall, the VHSL's director of communications, said. "We will continue following the current policy and the current law in Virginia." This comes after the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) changed its own policies to prevent those assigned male at birth from participating on women's teams at the college level.