Indiana Governor Mike Braun has taken decisive steps that have placed the state at the forefront of a contentious nationwide debate on gender and sports. By signing two executive orders, he asserts to safeguard women's sports and ground the state's definition of sex in biological terms.
The first order, Executive Order 25-35, insists that college sports for women in Indiana will adhere strictly to the Title IX Rule from 2020, not the Biden Administration's 2024 reinterpretation, which considers gender identity. In the wake of International Women's Day, Governor Braun stated, "Women’s sports create opportunities for young women to earn scholarships and develop leadership skills. Hoosiers overwhelmingly don’t want those opportunities destroyed by allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports, and today’s executive order will make sure of that,” according to a press release from Indiana's official event website.
In tandem with the above, Executive Order 25-36 addresses the legal understanding of sex within the state. The order articulates Indiana's opposition to what Braun describes as "extreme gender ideology." The Governor expressed his concerns, saying, "Replacing the scientific fact of biological sex, with the always-changing, self-reported idea of 'gender identity' has real consequences: it puts women in danger in female-only spaces like prisons, it destroys opportunities for women in sports, and it tells troubled kids that their mental health problems can be solved with sterilizing drugs and irreversible sex change operations. Indiana will not go along with this radical new idea of what gender means, and we will not allow tax dollars to be used to promote this ideology — instead, we’re going to focus on providing Freedom and Opportunity for all Hoosiers," as stated in the same press release.
These executive orders have placed Indiana squarely in the midst of a national dialogue that weighs the rights of individuals against the definitions and regulations governing sports, education, and legal classifications.
