USRowing’s trans-exclusionary policies only divide us all

On December 5, 2025, governing body USRowing quietly made a major change to their rowing policies; transgender women and non-binary people assigned male at birth are no longer able to compete in the Women’s category, regardless of their transition status, hormone levels, or legal documentation. Affected athletes are now “allowed” to either compete in the Men’s category (which is now open to everyone) or the Mixed category, which is supposed to have a 50/50 “natal” men and women split, where they would be counted as men.

Before this policy change, USRowing allowed transgender athletes to compete in the category that matched their gender. Though trans women and non-binary people affected by these changes can still train and row with their rowing clubs, this is effectively a ban from competing in any USRowing-sponsored event and competitive rowing altogether. In the days leading up to the announcement, USRowing identified and notified a portion of the rowers affected by the changes. In addition to changing the gender policy, USRowing also included a provision encouraging other players and coaches to report those they believe may be competing outside of their “biological sex.” One doesn’t have to exaggerate to be concerned by the precedent being set.

Of course, USRowing making these changes is no surprise to anyone involved in rowing. After the publication of Executive Order 14201, many sports organizations wasted no time in adopting the executive branch’s new definitions of sex and gender. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has banned trans women from all women’s events. Rowers knew it was coming. Still, many are unhappy about it.

Heather Swan, head coach of the Mendota Rowing Club (MRC), is one such person. A college rower in the ’90s, Heather returned to the sport 10 years ago as a coach. When USRowing made its policy change, the USRowing registered coach was not informed by the organization.

“The only place I was made aware of it was from other rowers,” Swan says. “The guidance has not been clear and is a change from what the policy was in 2025.”

The quiet reveal of the policy changes was shocking for many involved with the sport, and no further public guidance has been issued from USRowing since the announcement. However, the change was met with condemnation on social media from clubs like Chicago Rowing Union, with support for trans rowers in strong and unambiguous terms; and Mendota Rowing Club did the same more recently with a post on Facebook.

“I am very concerned that it is excluding an entire group of athletes; I am very concerned that it is a reversal of what last year’s policy stated, and it takes away an individual’s freedom to identify with their true gender identity as an athlete competing in USRowing events,” Swan says. “This will create a divide in the sport and perpetuate an idea of exclusion that USRowing had seemingly been working to shift.”

Coach Swan is not the only person thinking about the implications this has for the sport. Allies With Oars, an affiliate of the Steady State Network, is an organization that advocates for the inclusion of LGBT+ people in rowing. They’ve been on the forefront of publicizing the USRowing changes and holding the sports body to account.

“Rowing is one of (if not the) greatest team sports,” says Swan. “I love the teamwork and camaraderie it provides, as well the individual challenge of working on technique.”

There is nothing like rowing on Lake Mendota on a summer evening, moving in sync together across the water while the sun sets in the west. The feeling of being a vital part of a team working toward the same goal. It’s a form of community.

Though rowing is less popular of a sport in the United States than other parts of the world, Madison has an outsized representation within rowing; there are three established rowing teams in the city: the collegiate Wisconsin Rowing team, the youth club Camp Randall located at Brittingham Boathouse, and the Mendota Rowing Club on the shore of James Madison Park.

Doping policies and testing mechanisms are naturally already in place at USRowing for elite levels of competition. Medical interventions used on transgender patients like androgen blockers and surgery often lead to them having clinical testosterone levels lower than those of the average cisgender woman. USRowing does not acknowledge that reality, and instead institutes a categorical ban.

When asked about the policy, a representative of USRowing says they are not currently taking interviews with the media on this subject.

It goes without saying that cisgender women also have a wide variance in testosterone levels and body types; any woman outside of the “standard” can now be held under scrutiny. One needs only to remember the racist slander levied against Imane Khelif, Algerian women’s boxing champion during the 2024 Olympics to see the game at play here; influential commentators like J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk accused Khelif of secretly being transgender or hiding the fact that she had XY chromosomes because she was not sufficiently feminine. The conservative discourse around gender seeks to eliminate nuance and instead uphold a manufactured ideal of innocent white femininity.

The historical significance and excellent performance of Khelif’s gold medal win (the first female Algerian boxer to win gold in Olympic history) was marred by this manufactured controversy. In 2025, following the 2024 Olympics, the newly created World Boxing body announced mandatory genetic sex testing for all athletes competing in its events. In the press release on their website, they specifically single out Imane Khelif and state: “Imane Khelif may not participate in the female category at the Eindhoven Box Cup, 5-10 June 2025 and any World Boxing event until Imane Khelif undergoes genetic sex screening in accordance with World Boxing’s rules and testing procedures.”

Khelif has filed a lawsuit against World Boxing. She has not returned to the sport.

These executive orders and legislative pushes seek to create a federal definition of sex whole cloth. Previously, laws regarding transition and sex change were mostly the domain of states, with varying strictness. Under President Trump, the government is now the arbiter of what sex is: your gender is the sex you were assigned at your birth, it is immutable, and any attempts to transition socially, medically, or legally are not real. The sports issue is a Trojan horse, a “frivolous” issue pushed to further restrict the rights of trans and gender-nonconforming people in this country.

A Trojan horse, and a successful one at that; too often we’ve seen those who claim to be our allies remain silent or worse, tacitly agreeing with the framing of these attacks. At best, sympathetic lawmakers have claimed that this is a cruel attack on children and an extremely small minority of athletes who are trans. That it is, but this rhetoric implies that trans people are edge cases deserving special treatment rather than arguing against the logic of these bans. It is not very convincing.

The political moment that we’re in demands more courage from us all.

On January 14, 2026, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of two bans in Idaho and West Virginia. Among other trans advocates, Allies With Oars sent a contingent to Washington D.C. to rally for trans athletes outside the Supreme Court during oral arguments. Though decisions on these cases aren’t expected until the summer, with the current conservative supermajority of the court, there is not much hope of a verdict in favor of the athletes.

What happens after that depends on the court. A narrow ruling could establish that trans women are essentially women, but there are situations where exclusion is justifiable. A broad ruling could legally establish that for the purposes of segregation, trans women are men.

Given the dominant ideology of the Supreme Court, the nightmare scenario is not out of the question. The implications reach far beyond the realm of sports and become existential for trans women in America.

Politicians and pundits in support of these laws say it’s not a ban because they’re allowed to compete in the men’s category, or in a mixed category that counts them as “men.” Being forced to play on a team that is not your own is humiliating, and they are well aware of that.

This humiliation is very much the point. We are not wanted; a hated scapegoat for the Republicans and a political inconvenience for Democrats. For trans people such as myself, the world seems to get smaller by the day. A common topic of conversation amongst my friends is which states it is safe to travel to, which states we are allowed to do something as small as safely use the bathroom without being harassed for breaking the law. Many trans women live in fear of exposure by a media environment that vilifies us and makes horrible insinuations about us doing things others take for granted. Like having a job; or being a parent; or playing sports.

An entire generation of trans athletes has been eliminated with the stroke of a pen. Those whose names have been dragged through the mud endure hate speech and death threats in the hopes that media attention moves on, that they can survive it unscathed.

Some have not been so lucky.

The indignity of being a constant object of scorn by incurious and cruel bullies is almost too much to bear at times. Withdrawing from public view is a natural response to hate, but that is exactly what they want. We cannot be made to go away.

The reactionary right does not care about women’s sports or Title IX protections. They care about inscribing the absolute dominance of men in our society. Arguments of complete trans exclusion from women’s spaces and activities are arguments in favor of the assumed physical and mental superiority of men over women. Even in sports where there is little or no physical component: in the last few years both the World Darts Federation and the International Chess Federation (FIDE) have restricted their women’s categories.

Of course it is not just a game for the trans people who live in this country. It is not about fairness, and it is not about science. It is about determining which expressions of gender are acceptable and who gets to exist in public. Advocates for the banning of trans people in sports go back to their day job once this is all said and done; transgender people are cut out of their sports, their communities, their very lives.

Whatever verdict the Supreme Court comes to, the struggle for civil rights in this country will continue on, as it always has. The time may soon come where we will have the opportunity as a society to set things right. It’s not about turning back the clock. This will require vision, more than just a meek liberal “tolerance” of transgender people; a society where trans people get to decide for themselves who they are and are openly embraced by their teammates.

Coach Swan wonders if you can have a true team when you ask athletes to change who they are in order to play.

“Coaches can avoid gendered assumptions about strength or roles,” says Swan. “This is important for rowing to continue moving away from a binary, male-dominated sport, toward one that balances fair competition with human dignity and opportunity for all.”