Photo by Emily Tarinelli ’25
The NCAA’s eligibility policy for transgender athletes has sparked discussion among the community.
By Madelyn Dalley ’27
News Editor
Content warning: This article discusses transphobia.
On Feb. 6, 2025, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced an update to their eligibility policy for transgender athletes competing in NCAA-sponsored sports. In this announcement, the NCAA stated that athletes who are “assigned male at birth” are no longer able to compete on women’s varsity sports teams, but are otherwise allowed to practice with said teams. The policy also stipulates that “a student-athlete assigned female at birth who has begun hormone therapy (e.g., testosterone) may not compete on a women’s team,” but may also continue to practice with a women’s team. Mount Holyoke College, being an NCAA-sponsored Division III institution, has since changed its athletic participation policy to align with that of the NCAA.
This policy change has sparked much discussion among the Mount Holyoke community, with some community members questioning the College’s stance on trans inclusion as well as the general future of transgender collegiate life. In the athletics sphere particularly, some students have raised concerns regarding whether or not there is still a place for transgender students to participate in athletics at the College.
Mount Holyoke News reached out to members of the transgender community to ask them to share their experiences and feelings regarding this policy change. On Friday, April 4, Mount Holyoke News sat down with Annie Bethell ’26, a nonbinary member of the Mount Holyoke soccer team, to discuss their opinions on the NCAA policy change as a direct participant in the Association.
Bethell, who is currently a junior, has been competing on the College’s soccer team since their first year. Their choice to compete in the NCAA on behalf of Mount Holyoke was largely influenced by the College’s inclusive reputation. However, even prior to any policy changes, Bethell has struggled with this notion of inclusivity.
“I came to Mount Holyoke soccer because I knew that Mount Holyoke was going to be a more inclusive environment for trans athletes, and upon arrival, I did feel that way,” Bethell said. “But externally, we are a women's soccer team who play other women's soccer teams, and people like referees or spectators, other teams' players, aren't as inclusive as Mount Holyoke is … NCAA teams are registered as women's teams, so everyone involved in athletics outside of Mount Holyoke treats us as women and uses terms like ‘ladies’ when referring to a group of us. So that's been challenging.” Bethell also stated that prior to the policy change, they were permitted to take small doses of testosterone for hormone replacement therapy, as well as receive gender affirming surgery.
Bethell is not alone in feeling awkward as a transgender person in the athletics sphere. Even those at the College who are not directly participating in athletics have expressed discomfort with being involved in the athletics world as transgender people, even before the recent NCAA changes, including an anonymous Kendall Sports & Dance Complex employee and senior student at Mount Holyoke. “I'm the first person people see when they enter the gym, and I sometimes feel out of place as one of the few workers who presents myself quite differently,” the anonymous student employee wrote to Mount Holyoke News through a submission form. “When I enter the gym for a shift, I enter a place where I am a non-athlete woman. It feels off.”
The re-inauguration of President Donald Trump has intensified this discomfort among those interviewed, and raised concerns among Americans in general regarding the intensification of already existing country-wide human rights issues. While initially being more concerned by other Trump administration policies, such as an attempt to reinstate the death penalty and the push for mass deportations, Bethell, being a transgender player on a collegiate women’s soccer team, grew increasingly worried about the administration’s impact on themself.
“[In] my situation specifically, I recognized my positionality and privilege, but there was a voice in the back of my head saying, ‘they're coming for you, too,’” Bethell said.
Regardless of the College’s reputation as an inclusive environment for members of the LGBTQ+ community, the College’s compliance with the NCAA’s newest policy has already started to affect transgender athletes on campus, including Bethell.
Bethell stated that the order has deterred them from pursuing further steps in their transition, such as further hormone therapy. While the NCAA policy does not explicitly stipulate that athletes who receive gender-affirming surgeries are ineligible to compete on either men’s or women’s teams, the recent NCAA changes, Bethell said, have greatly challenged them since being enacted. “For a variety of personal and collegiate NCAA reasons, I'm now unable to [receive gender-affirming surgery] unless I find a way to argue that it is not for a gender-affirming purpose,” Bethell said.
Bethell also argued that the policy will create complications for all NCAA participants, in and outside of the College, who need hormone therapy and have already undergone the process while it was still permitted. “It's a lot harder for people who genuinely need … hormones,” Bethell said. “Coming off of hormones, even at a small dosage, is really challenging, and I'm aware of that happening here.”
Collegiate teams are not the only athletics groups at risk. Federal and executive orders to bar transgender athletes from other leagues of play — such as Executive Order 14201 “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” — aim to ban transgender women from participating in all women’s and girl’s athletics teams receiving federal funding, including K-12 teams.
“I’m really worried about the suicide rates of trans youth, especially in rural areas, where this legislation is literally taking civil rights away,” Bethell said. They also raised concerns about general spreading of misinformation and ignorance regarding trans issues.
“These restrictions are a total disregard for the voices of scientists, transgender people, and athletes. The fear-mongering and misinformation have been extremely powerful conservative tools to keep transgender people out of the mainstream,” the anonymous student worker at Kendall said.
The student added that they are also “concerned by how our gym is actually handling this,” further showing the impact that the NCAA’s policy change, and national restrictions on trans people in general, have had on Mount Holyoke’s trans community already.
Employees at other institutions have shown concern for transgender people in their athletic communities. Cameron Wein, the Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance at Kutztown University, is a transgender man who has also shown concerns for his own position.
“My whole transition has taken place in college athletics,” Wein wrote in a submitted response. “Prior to the change of presidential administration, being trans in any sphere can be difficult. The hate has been amplified. Individuals that seemed to have no problem with me prior to the election, now are very vocal about their feelings [towards] trans people.”
However, regardless of national bans and restrictions regarding transgender participation in athletics, hope is still held for the future of transgender Americans in and outside of athletics. “I think that being hopeless is easy, but having discipline is hard, and where I get hope from is the work of the people who came before me,” Bethell said. “Trans people are going to exist no matter what happens, and trans people are going to be really good at sports no matter what happens.”
Wein also expressed hope for the future, despite current action taken by fellow athletics administrators. “I want my voice to be out there. I hope that more administrators start speaking up, but I haven't seen much happening across athletics,” Wein wrote. “I will continue to fight for what is right.”
Additionally, Bethell mentioned that the increased focus on transgender exclusion is likely due to government concerns about threats to its power. “In a really twisted way, this kind of legislation actually means that we're doing something right, and so we should continue doing what we're doing,” they said.
Madeleine Diesl ’28 contributed fact-checking.