Pete Buttigieg stunningly agrees with Trump on trans athletes... but rejects president's strategy on issue READ MORE: DailyMail+ Power List of America's sports analysts By ALEX RASKIN Published: 19:40 BST, 30 July 2025 | Updated: 20:10 BST, 30 July 2025 Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has acknowledged 'fairness issues' with trans athletes participating in women and girls' sports, although he disagrees with political grandstanding and legislation aimed at dictating rules for the entire country. 'Around sports… I think most reasonable people would recognize that there are serious fairness issues if you just treat this as not mattering when a trans athlete wants to compete in women's sports,' Buttigieg told NPR. '… I think these decisions should be in the hands of sports leagues and school boards and not politicians… in Washington trying to use this as a political pawn,' Buttigieg added Democrats in recent years have aimed to do exactly with their doomed efforts to pass the Transgender Bill of Rights and the Equality Act through congress, both of which attempted to address sports-gender issues. What's more, President Joe Biden signed an executive order in January of 2021 stating that children 'should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.' Since returning to the White House in January, Donald Trump has signed an executive order titled 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports,' threatening to defund institutions that permitted trans athletes to compete with females. Meanwhile, 27 sates have passed their own laws restricting sports access for trans competitors. Pete Buttigieg has acknowledged 'fairness issues' with trans athletes participating in women and girls' sports, although he disagrees with politicians grandstanding on the issue Trump has worked to exclude trans athletes from female sports through executive orders To Buttigieg, a Democrat and Navy veteran who was deployed in Afghanistan, any attempt to legislate the issue from Washington is misguided, given the differing circumstances from sport to sport, region to region, and level to level. 'Chess is different from weightlifting, and weightlifting is different from volleyball and middle school is different from the Olympics,' he said. 'So, that's exactly why I think that we shouldn't be grandstanding on this as politicians. We should be empowering communities and organizations and schools to make the right decisions.' Meanwhile, athletic organizations are lining up behind Trump, including the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. As first reported by NBC last week , the committee updated its policies to reflect Trump's order and suggest trans women no longer compete against biological females while representing USA at the Olympics and Paralympics. While the word 'transgender' is not mentioned in any of the 27 pages, its new 'Athlete Safety Policy' includes language that implies the change was made almost a year on from the previous Games in Paris. 'The USOPC will continue to collaborate with various stakeholders with oversight responsibilities, e.g., IOC, IPC, NGBs, to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act,' the document says, according to NBC's report. The New York Times also reported that national governing bodies of sports federations in the must now follow the Olympic and Paralympic Committee's lead, according to several chief executives of sports within the Olympic movement. DemocratsOlympicsJoe Biden Share or comment on this article: Pete Buttigieg stunningly agrees with Trump on trans athletes... but rejects president's strategy on issue Add comment