Since the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced a new policy regarding transgender athletes in April, the future of trans women’s participation in collegiate sports has remained up in the air.
Even the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which Willamette belongs to, has placed its current trans policy “under review” following a lawsuit in which several swimmers accused the NCAA of violating their Title IX rights by allowing a transgender player to compete against them in national championships.
Before April of this year, the NAIA’s policy on transgender athletes “mirrored that of the NCAA,” according to its website. The NCAA policy to which this refers allowed trans athletes with a year of hormone therapy to participate on the team that aligned with their gender identity. The NCAA updated this policy in 2022 to a “sport-by-sport” approach, which follows the rulings of each sport’s national governing body. Additional regulations for documenting hormone levels were also implemented.
According to the NAIA, it was the 2022 policy change that prompted it to form a “Transgender Task Force” in 2022. This task force recommended the NAIA’s latest policy on transgender athletes. It’s unclear what exactly this organization determined in its “two years of work” and how, but the new policy bars transgender women from participating in women’s sports in any way.
Cedric Shaw (’27), a former midfielder for WU’s women’s lacrosse team, thinks these policy changes have more to do with the current political climate than fairness in sports. “I get to an extent why you would need regulations, not only for the social pressures … but also for internal safety,” he said, “but there comes a point where the regulations are not for the safety of your athletes anymore, and that is what the NAIA is doing.”
According to Shaw, NAIA schools have a reputation for being religious and conservative. Whether or not this is linked to transgender policies, at least 60% of current NAIA schools (of which there are 237) are “faith-based institutions.”
Salem’s own NAIA school, Corban University, follows this trend — it’s well-known for its religious affiliation. The university, alongside others, successfully fought to affirm its right to discriminate against LGBTQ students this year. Shaw suggested that universities like Corban might have an inflated view of how often transgender women’s participation in sports even comes up.
Shaw is a trans man and stopped competing with the lacrosse team this year in order to pursue his long-held goal of medically transitioning. His experience playing lacrosse at Willamette gives him firsthand experience with the NCAA’s transgender policies.
“I wanted to continue being a part of the sport without … being controversial, so I really wanted to be a practice player. … I love playing lacrosse and I love my team,” he said. Practice players are just what they sound like— athletes who help a team during practice but don’t play with the team competitively. In fact, cisgender men are integral components of some Bearcat women’s practice squads, including basketball and soccer. Regardless, Shaw was required to submit a hefty dose of paperwork regarding his transition, the reason he takes hormones, and more in order to participate similarly.
Shaw claims the process of becoming a practice player is usually simple. “I thought it would be easy for me,” he said. He began the application in August, but because of the abundance of paperwork and a lack of timely responses, he’s still not approved to practice with the team.
The NCAA’s policies wouldn’t allow Shaw to play competitively on a women’s team, but even if they did, he wouldn’t be interested. “I don’t think that someone like me should be playing in women’s sports,” he said, citing the social aspect as well as the advantage provided by masculinizing hormones. “I clearly am not a woman.”
Shaw also says that he’s an aggressive player. His aggression on the field, however, has nothing to do with his gender identity. “It’s not the trans part. It is just me being aggressive.” He explained that the two are often conflated in arguments against transgender athletes’ participation.
“They pinpoint specific athletes for their aggression and the features they exhibit during play that, if exhibited in a cis player, would just kind of … make them a good player. That aggression is associated with them being trans instead of just them being a person, [and] it takes away from them being an athlete.”
It “doesn’t make sense” to him that the NAIA has made it impossible for transgender women with a history of hormone therapy to be considered for women’s teams.
“Being trans is not something people do to win at NAIA sports. Put some perspective on that! That’s not why they’re doing it. People transition because it vastly improves their lives. … That’s not a choice.”
Shaw’s shoulders folded inwards as he spoke. “I wouldn’t choose this,” he admitted. “God, I would not choose this.”
It's currently unclear when and if the NCAA will alter its policy again. There has been backlash against the NAIA's new policy, however, which suggests controversy regarding trans women's participation in collegiate-level sports will be ongoing.