KANSAS CITY — NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said that the league would prioritize its organizational values, in response to a question from regarding the potential impacts of the incoming Trump administration on women’s health and LGBTQ+ rights and possible immigration policy changes.
“Whether [Donald] Trump is the president or Kamala [Harris] was president, we’re committed to the values of the league, and we stand for inclusivity, excellence and unity,” she said Friday during a press conference at CPKC Stadium ahead of Saturday’s NWSL Championship between the Orlando Pride and Washington Spirit.
“We’re going to continually live by our values and support everyone in our ecosystem, inclusive of our fans, our players, our employees, in every community where we operate.”
President-elect Trump has pledged multiple times through this campaign to “keep men out of women’s sports,” which has been a recurring platform at all levels of the Republican party during this election cycle. However, Trump has not provided specifics on what steps he would take.
“You just ban it,” he said during a Fox News town hall in October. “The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”
There has been an increase in bills from Republicans that would limit the participation of transgender athletes in sports across the United States, but so far, they have largely targeted youth sports.
The NWSL issued a policy on transgender and nonbinary athlete participation in 2021, which begins with the guiding principle of “creating a safe, non-discriminatory and inclusive environment for all of its athletes while maintaining competitive equity throughout the league.” The policy does allow challenges to an athlete’s eligibility under the policy, though the league states it “will only consider requests that are reasonable and made in good faith.”
According to the league’s eligibility guidelines, any athlete assigned female at birth is eligible to play in the league, while those who are designated female at birth who are transitioning to male and are undergoing testosterone hormone therapy are ineligible to compete in the NWSL, unless their hormone levels fall under certain levels.
Athletes who transition from male to female are eligible to compete if their total testosterone level is within the typical limits of women athletes over a set period.
The NWSL currently only has one out transgender player, who was assigned female at birth and who identifies as nonbinary.
Berman did not offer specifics when asked about whether the league has plans to handle possible issues around immigration policy changes and how, or if, international players could be affected.
Over the last two World Cup cycles, women’s soccer has been subject to Trump’s attention. While he has largely focused on the now-retired U.S. women’s national team and Reign player Megan Rapinoe in 2019 and 2023, he has also been highly critical of the U.S. women’s team.
Following the USWNT’s exit from the 2023 World Cup in a penalty shoot-out with Sweden, Trump posted on Truth Social that the loss was “fully emblematic of what is happening to our once great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden.”
“Many of our players were openly hostile to America — No other country behaved in such a manner, or even close,” he added.
On Friday, Berman did not provide much in the way of specifics of any potential additional protections the league would put in place for players or staff, especially in the context of a player having been criticized previously.
“We’re committed to ensuring that our players and our staff get all of their needs met, whether that’s healthcare, other protections around mental health — any support that anyone needs in our ecosystem,” Berman said.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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