SAN FRANCISCO -- The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recently announced that it has approved and clarified opportunities for transgender student athletes to participate on college athletic teams in accordance with their gender identity.

The NCAA worked closely with NCLR's Sports Project and Griffin Educational Consulting on the policy.

In their announcement, the NCAA stated the policy "will allow a transgender student athlete to participate in sex-separated sports activities so long as the athlete’s use of hormone therapy is consistent with the NCAA policies and current medical standards.”

NCLR's Sports Project Director Helen Carroll applauded the historic policy.

“I commend the NCAA’s commitment to creating and supporting an inclusive culture that fosters equitable participation for student athletes," Carroll said. "This new policy that will not only allow, but encourage transgender student athletes to participate on athletic teams. This is truly historic, and it will give transgender student athletes equal access and opportunities to play college-level sports without any obstacles.”

Under the policy:

• A transgender male student athlete who has a medical exception for testosterone hormone therapy may compete on a men’s team, but is no longer eligible to compete on a women’s team without changing the team status to a mixed team.
• A transgender female student athlete who has taken medication to suppress testosterone for a year may compete on a women’s team.

Also under the new policy, transgender student athletes who are not undergoing hormone therapy remain eligible to play on teams based on the gender of their birth sex and may socially transition by dressing and using the appropriate pronouns that match their gender identity.

NCLR joined with It Takes A Team!, an initiative of the Women's Sports Foundation back in October in 2009 to develop a think tank to identify best practices and develop model policies for high school and other collegiate athletic programs, to ensure full inclusion of transgender student athletes.

The results were released in October 2010, in a report titled, "On the Team: Equal Opportunity for Transgender Student Athletes." The report was compiled and written by NCLR's Carroll and Dr. Pat Griffin, former director of It Takes a Team!

This report was utilized by the NCAA to draft its own policy, which has now been approved and takes effect immediately.

The NCAA has and will continue to provide resources to its members about gender identity and its role in intercollegiate athletics, as well as educational material about the inclusion of transgender student athletes and best practices.

For more information about the NCAA’s policy, contact NCAA Director of Gender Inclusion Karen Morrison at KMorrison@NCAA.org.

Download your copy of the report, "On the Team: Equal Opportunity for Transgender Student Athletes" here.

Read more about the NCAA’s LGBT resources here.