USA Rugby Bans Trans Women From Women’s Teams

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

USA Rugby Bans Trans Women From Women's Teams

https://www.them.us/story/usa-rugby-bans-trans-women-womens-teams 🔗

Samantha Riedel (2 March 2026)

USA Rugby, the governing body for organized rugby in the United States, will now ban transgender women from competing on women's division teams, the organization announced Friday.

Women's division rugby teams will now be open only to players assigned female at birth, according to USA Rugby's new eligibility policy, effective February 20. The men's division is open to "any athlete registered as male," per the policy document, which also creates a new "open" division in which athletes may register regardless of sex. (World Aquatics created similar "open" category ahead of the 2023 Swimming World Cup, which failed when nobody signed up.)

Rugby clubs and organizations in the U.S. denounced USA Rugby's announcement shortly after it was issued last week. "This decision is unacceptable and does not reflect the core values of rugby, respect, integrity, and solidarity," wrote representatives for the Columbus Coyotes, an LGBTQ+-inclusive rugby club from Ohio, in an Instagram post on Saturday. "Exclusion is not who we are."

Rugby news site Your Scrumhalf Connection called on U.S. women's rugby clubs to re-register for the "open" division in solidarity to defeat the policy updates. "If the Women's Division becomes empty because teams refuse to play without their trans teammates, the policy fails. We stay together," organizers wrote in a call to action last week.

[Lori Dee ✅]

Rugby news site Your Scrumhalf Connection called on U.S. women's rugby clubs to re-register for the "open" division in solidarity to defeat the policy updates. "If the Women's Division becomes empty because teams refuse to play without their trans teammates, the policy fails. We stay together," organizers wrote in a call to action last week.

Men's and women's divisions should be shut down by having everyone register for the open division. Not everyone will, but enough defection would leave too few members to form a team.

I love malicious compliance.