The US Supreme Court has upheld state laws banning trans women and girls from public-school athletics, but the NCAA does not plan to follow suit. President Charlie Baker told CBS News that the organisation's existing transgender athlete policy is staying in place, that he considers it inclusive, and that he does not believe many member schools have a problem with it. In a week of damaging news for trans young people, that is at least one institution not rushing to pile on.

What the Supreme Court actually decided

The court upheld lower court rulings from Idaho and West Virginia that ban trans women and girls from competing in public-school athletics, ruling that those bans do not violate Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that no student-athlete "deserves to be ostracized or vilified", and then authored a ruling that does exactly that. It is a remarkable sentence to put your name to.

The decision is expected to shape the legal landscape across more than two dozen states where similar laws are already in force, while legal challenges continue elsewhere. And it lands on top of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in early 2025, which the NCAA had already incorporated into its own policy framework.

The practical scale of this is worth keeping in view. Baker himself told a Senate panel in 2024 that there were fewer than ten trans athletes competing across all of college sport out of more than 500,000 student-athletes. He also said he did not know how many of those few were trans women. Ten people, possibly, out of half a million. The court has expended enormous legal energy on a question affecting a number of individuals so small it could fit in a minibus, and the answer it arrived at is: they don't get to play.

What the NCAA actually said

Baker's interview with CBS News on 1 July is worth reading carefully, because he is threading a needle here. The NCAA's current policy bars athletes assigned male at birth from competing in NCAA women's sports, while leaving men's competition open to all eligible athletes. That policy was adopted in response to Trump's executive order, not because of any groundswell of concern from within college sport itself. Baker said so plainly: "We adopted and comply with the standard that was put forth by the administration."

On state-level bans, he was careful to draw a distinction. Those are, he said, "a different question." He is right about that. The Supreme Court ruling operates in the space of state law governing school sports; the NCAA sets its own rules for college competition. Those are genuinely separate frameworks, whatever the political pressure to collapse them together.

What I found notable was Baker's answer when asked whether the current policy was inclusive. He said he believed it was, and that he did not think many schools objected to it. That is a long way from enthusiasm, but it is not the open door to further restriction that some will have been hoping for. When asked to rank trans athlete issues among the NCAA's other priorities, he said: "Having talked to people on both sides of this issue, to those who are involved in it, it matters a lot." Again, measured. But he did not say it didn't matter.

Minnesota said no, and meant it, mostly

Minnesota has not moved. Trans athletes are still legally protected under state law, and Governor Tim Walz was quick to say so. "In Minnesota, we can continue to treat our transgender athletes and youth with dignity and humanity and respect," he said. "We'll continue to do that, nothing will change there." The DFL Party Chair Richard Carlbom put it plainly: "We should be opening doors for trans women and girls, not closing them. Let them play."

Those are good words, and I mean that genuinely. In a political climate where many elected officials have decided trans people are a useful target, choosing to say the opposite clearly and publicly takes something. The community stepped up too. Minnesota Aurora FC posted that no child should be told that who they are disqualifies them from the experience of sport. A Bar of Their Own announced it would donate a dollar from every beer sold to Transforming Families. Businesses stepping up when a court steps back is not nothing.

The gap is real, though. Saying the right things about trans rights and actually protecting trans people when it costs something political are two different commitments. Legal protection only holds as long as it is defended, and defending it requires more than a press conference statement when a federal ruling lands. It requires showing up in the quieter moments too.

What this ruling actually does to young people

Sport is not a luxury. For young people, it is where you learn to lose and recover, to be part of something, to push yourself and find out who you are. Trans girls are not asking for an advantage. They are asking to run, to swim, to kick a ball, to belong to a team. The Supreme Court has told a small number of them, in certain states, for now, that who they are is the disqualifying factor.

Kavanaugh's line about not wanting anyone ostracised rings hollow, because the ruling is the ostracism. You cannot write that sentence and then sign the order beneath it and expect anyone to believe you meant it.

The NCAA holding its line is not a full answer to any of this. Baker's policy was itself a concession to executive pressure, and "we comply with the standard put forth by the administration" is not a ringing declaration of principle. But in a week when the highest court in the country told trans girls their participation is a problem to be solved, one major governing body declining to escalate is at least something. The floor has not dropped further, not here, not today.

What I want trans girls reading this to know is that people are fighting for them. The bar down the road said it with beer money going to Transforming Families. Aurora FC said it on Instagram. Minnesota said it at a press conference. And those of us who believe trans people deserve to live full, ordinary, joyful lives need to make sure the gap between states that protect them and states that don't stays wide, and keeps widening.

If there is a news story you would like me to cover then just let Sammy know.

Dr Helen Webberley is a gender specialist, medical educator, and founder of GenderGP. She writes about gender diversity, trans healthcare, and the lives of trans people and their families.