Donald Trump wants to ban trans athletes

One of President-elect Donald Trump 's most popular talking points during his campaign centred on the future of transgender athletes.

Trump revisited the topic multiple times in the months and weeks before the election, suggesting at his rallies that one of the goals of his second term would be to "keep men out of women's sports".

Millions were spent on advertising that turned something that affects a tiny minority of competitors into a wedge issue.

More than half of voters overall -- and the vast majority of Trump supporters -- said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide.

What, exactly, Trump will do when he takes office on January 20 is unclear. His transition team has not divulged any specifics, though the president-elect said during his campaign that the process would be "easy".

In some ways, it might be. In others, things could be far murkier.

What did Trump say during the campaign?

A lot. Trump seemed to identify the discussion around the rights of transgender people in general, and trans athletes in particular, as one that could garner both attention and support that went beyond his usual base.

Trump would often use language about gender identity that LGBTQ+ advocates say is wrong and harmful. He also falsely labelled two Olympic female boxers as men, and said their ability to participate in the Paris Games was "demeaning to women" even though both Imane Khelif of Algeria and Li Yu-ting of Taiwan were assigned female at birth and identify as women.

Trump ramped up the rhetoric as election day approached, telling the crowd at a Madison Square Garden rally in October: "We will get ... transgender insanity the hell out of our schools, and we will keep men out of women's sports."

What are the presidential powers in this area?

Trump has said on Day One that he would cut federal funding to "any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children".

There are several layers to this, but the most immediate would be how his administration interprets Title IX, the law best known for its role in pursuing gender equity in athletics and preventing sexual harassment on campuses.

Every administration has the authority to issue its own interpretations of the landmark legislation. The last two presidential administrations -- including Trump's first -- offer a glimpse at the push-pull involved.

Betsy DeVos, the education secretary during Trump's first term, issued a Title IX policy in 2020 that narrowed the definition of sexual harassment and required colleges to investigate claims only if they're reported to certain officials.

The Biden administration rolled back that policy in April with one of its own that stipulated the rights of LGBTQ+ students would be protected by federal law and provided new safeguards for victims of campus sexual assault. The policy stopped short of explicitly addressing transgender athletes. Still, more than a half-dozen Republican-led states immediately challenged the new rule in court.

Trump could again shift the way the Title IX sports regulation is viewed and enforced.

"All Trump has to say is, 'We are going to read the regulation traditionally'," said Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School.

What's the difference between "sex" and "gender" and how would it affect Title IX?

Under the first Trump administration, the government interpreted "sex" as the gender someone was assigned at birth.

The Biden administration chose to interpret sex as "gender identity" under Title IX, which could be interpreted to protect trans athletes from being discriminated against if they wanted to participate in a sport that aligned with their gender identity, not their sex assigned at birth.

It is widely expected that Trump will roll back the definition of sex to align with the sex someone was assigned at birth.

- AP