CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Attacks on Transgender Women are Part of a Larger MAGA Agenda

Photo by Thiago Rocha

Just days before, March 31, 2026, International Transgender Day of Visibility, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced a ban on transgender women participating in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The committee released a statement saying, “Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females.”

Although the IOC didn’t explicitly say it was caving in to pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, the ban is consistent with Trump’s scapegoating of transgender people throughout his tenure. The White House lauded the decision, taking credit for the IOC’s decision.

In Trump’s worldview, even those who are biologically born as female are not woman enough if they don’t live up to Western conventions of femininity. Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, who won gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, found themselves at the center of MAGA’s gender policing when Trump falsely claimed they were men.

Given the hubbub over transgender athletes, one would be forgiven for concluding that they routinely compete at the Olympics. According to a 2026 Associated Press report, “It is unclear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at an Olympic level.” Moreover, no transgender women competed in the 2024 Olympics. The explicit ban by an institution against a community that has little to no representation in that organization is a clear indicator that it is not about a ban as much as about feeding the collective Trump-led pile-on against trans people, and the broader policing of gender that is at the heart of a patriarchal yearning for outdated gender-based societal roles.

In its recent announcement, the IOC didn’t just stop at banning transgender athletes. It also announced........

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