Kristi Noem banned transgender girls and women from competing on women's sports teams at public high schools and colleges via a pair of executive orders issued Monday. The move came after Noem angered conservatives by killing a bill that would have created a similar prohibition. Though the two executive orders signed by Noem do not explicitly mention transgender athletes, they ​reference the supposed harms of the participation of "males" in women's athletics -- an echo of the transphobic claim, cited in other similar legislative initiatives, that transgender women are not women. The orders also reference "biological sex," a disputed term that refers to the sex as listed on students' original birth certificates. ​It's not possible to know a person's gender identity at birth, and there is no consensus criteria for assigning sex at birth.

Source: CNN March 30, 2021 18:22 UTC