Chambana Sun

State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) is calling on the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) to reverse its transgender athlete policy after the organization said in a letter to state lawmakers that it would not comply with President Donald Trump's executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

“The IHSA’s discrimination against girls and women in competitive sport is not only harmful on the field, it violates the privacy rights of female athletes in the locker room,” Rose told the Chambana Sun. “It is past the point for this nonsense to end.”

Rose's comments come amid a standoff between the IHSA and the federal government following President Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order, which cites Title IX and recent court rulings and instructs the Department of Education to withhold funding from schools that allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports. 

It also directs the Department of Justice to support enforcement efforts and calls on federal agencies to reassess related grants. Additionally, the order mandates international advocacy for sex-based sports categories and imposes immigration restrictions on males seeking to compete in women’s events.

But the IHSA, in a letter to state legislators, has refused to comply, citing conflict with the Illinois Human Rights Act, which protects participation based on gender identity. The IHSA emphasized in a public statement that it is a private entity receiving no state or federal funding and, therefore, is not subject to federal penalties.

The IHSA’s stance was issued in response to a March 17 letter from 40 Republican state lawmakers who requested clarification from the association on whether it would align with the federal directive. 

The letter criticized current IHSA guidelines, which allow transgender athletes to compete according to their gender identity, and referenced internal documents outlining the eligibility process for opposite-sex sports participation.

The controversy comes as federal officials have launched a Title IX investigation into the Illinois Department of Education, Chicago Public Schools District 299 and locally at Deerfield Public Schools District 109 where female students at Deerfield Middle School were forced to undress in front of a biological male student. 

Conservative advocacy group Awake Illinois has also condemned the IHSA’s refusal to adopt the executive order, accusing it of “allowing boys to invade girls’ sports.” 

Rose represents Illinois’ 51st Senate District, which includes the counties of Champaign, De Witt, Douglas, Edgar, Macon, McLean, Moultrie, Piatt, Shelby and Vermilion.