Updates on the Spring Nationals Eligibility Review - Main Thread

USMS is a democratic organization managed mostly by volunteers. Our competitive rules have included conditions on which trans women can compete in the "women" category for more than 20 years. If you are a USMS member and you think those rules should change, you should study the issue and collaborate with other like-minded people to propose appropriate rule changes for the membership's consideration at an Annual Meeting. Abusing our staff members and our volunteers is very unlikely to help your cause, however.

Meanwhile, the volunteers reviewing the eligibility protests relating to 2025 SCY Nationals will finish their work carefully and respectfully, but not immediately. 

U.S. Masters Swimming’s Board of Directors and Rules Committee have initiated a review of USMS's transgender swimmer policy, which addresses the eligibility of transgender athletes to earn official times and other forms of recognition (places, records, and Top 10 rankings) at USMS events. USMS remains committed to ensuring members of all backgrounds feel welcome in our programs, while also recognizing the importance of fair competition in our events.

USMS will proceed thoughtfully and respectfully in evaluating the policy and will incorporate input received from members, applicable World Aquatics policies, and the various and rapidly changing state and local regulations that make creating a national policy complex.

The final policy will be communicated to members.

Furthermore, USMS is addressing two other related issues:

• USMS has received requests to confirm the eligibility of two swimmers who competed at the 2025 Spring National Championship. The established review process is underway.
• USMS has received a letter from the Texas Attorney General’s Office requesting documentation related to the 2025 Spring National Championship in San Antonio and is cooperating with the Texas Attorney General’s Office to respond accordingly.

We appreciate your patience and engagement as USMS works through these matters with care.

Sincerely,

Dawson Hughes, CEO of U.S. Masters Swimming, and Ed Coates, President of U.S. Masters Swimming (6/3/25)

I appreciate the updates and executive information shared on this forum; however, your audience here is limited to those who have taken time to engage in the process of enacting change. In reality, the whole body of Masters Swimming needs to hear and see these updates. I suggest that this historic moment in time demands transparent leadership via communication to all USMS members using your various platforms: email, Facebook and other social media. Publish the above letter to all members. 

Leadership should also step up and immediately remove the arbitrary limitations on who has standing to request an eligibility review of known transgender swimmers. The current guidelines hamstring those who prioritize fairness for all.  Leadership has a choice: continue to allow the concerns of your members to be dismissed, or remove the barriers that discriminate against those seeking to ensure a fair playing field.  

Will USMS take into account those transgender individuals who received timely gender-affirming healthcare, including puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, and thus went through puberty in conformity with their gender identity? They would not have a physical advantage over cisgender competitors.

And will USMS take into account those transgender swimmers who are stealth (meaning, not out)? No one should be forced to out themselves. Now that more and more transgender individuals and children are receiving timely gender-affirming healthcare, in the future we increasingly will not be able to tell whether someone is transgender. They will "pass," and be perceived by others, as their gender identity.

USMS, please do not enact policies that would "out" or "other" transgender swimmers. As a cisgender woman who has loved ones and friends that are transgender, I want them included and welcomed. I do not want them excluded, disqualified, discriminated against, or otherwise forced out of USMS swimming.

USMS already has a a severe problem with its glaring lack of diversity. I am a member of another marginalized group, and I have never met another USMS swimmer that was a member of my group.

Moreover, the Texas Attorney General's Office has a history of engaging in unlawful, blatantly anti-trans actions and demands beyond the scope and jurisdiction of their office, such as demanding patient records from out-of-state hospitals. They have been sued multiple times on the basis of these unlawful actions and demands. I see that USMS is headquartered in Florida, not Texas.

I strongly urge USMS to NOT comply with any unlawful demands for documentation or information from the Texas AG. Please first consult with any of the outside counsel litigating the above-mentioned lawsuits against the Texas AG, that include but are not limited to, PFLAG, ACLU (both national and Texas), Lambda Legal, as well as the law firms of Scott, Douglass & McConnico (www.scottdoug.com) and Baker Botts (www.bakerbotts.com).

Do you believe in dialogue? Today I discovered that 36 of 41 comments from a 4/27/2025 USMS Facebook post have been deleted, and that some of the members who contributed to the discussion have been blocked. Is this how you treat members who stray from your desired narrative? The comments were all part of an important back-and-forth on the issue of integrity in women's sports. Screen shots prove that nothing offensive was said, yet poof! the comments have now disappeared. Wow. Very disappointing that USMS suppresses free speech. 

Why are women always having to fight men for our rights? My grandmother’s generation fought for the ability to vote, my mother’s got the right to work, my generation fought for Title 9. And now this  I just competed in the Chesapeake Bay Swim. There was a non-binary category. I heard no negative comments. Celebrations for the winner of that division. A small start that may encourage others. Simple solution for a complicated issue. Be proud of whatever you are. 

I'd be OK with an open division that was voluntary and open to anyone and everyone that wanted to be in it, as opposed to forcing specific individuals into that division and "othering" them. As a cisgender woman, I'd enter that division to show solidarity and support for gender diverse individuals.

I agree with you that the fight for women's rights STILL continues (sigh), but I want to add that transgender individuals aren't the enemy. I'm tired of certain cisgender men pretending to care about women's rights by complaining about transgender women in sports, which literally does not affect these men at all, and then mansplaining to any women who disagree with them or otherwise object to them. Like you said, we've fought for our rights for many generations now, and against cisgender men at that, so we don't need them to turn around and use our rights as a pretext to justify their transphobia.

On June 9, U.S. Masters Swimming's Board of Directors approved the adoption of an Interim Policy on Participation in the Male and Female Competition Category and Eligibility for Recognition Programs to replace the current Policy on Transgender Swimmer Inclusion. This interim policy was modeled after applicable portions of the World Aquatics Policy on the Eligibility for the Men's and Women's Competition Categories and will go into effect July 1. 

The board and Rules Committee developed the interim policy while weighing the feedback of USMS members. It reflects USMS’s commitment to inclusion, fairness, and the integrity of competition, values that have defined our organization throughout its 55-year history.

You can learn more about the interim policy on our FAQs page.

What the Interim Policy Does

• Continues to allow all members to participate in the competition category that aligns with their gender identity
• Establishes updated eligibility criteria for competitive recognition programs that include event rankings, Top 10, All-American status, and records
• More closely aligns USMS with the applicable parts of the policy of World Aquatics, swimming’s international governing body that USMS a member of

Why Now?

We moved swiftly to thoughtfully develop this policy in response to our members’ concerns, as well as a recent inquiry from the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Please know that this decision was made with care, respect, and recognition of our members’ range of perspectives.

Creating a policy that balances our organizational values of inclusion and fairness of competition, the diverse range of our members’ perspectives, applicable World Aquatics policies, and various state and local regulations is challenging. We know this update will be welcomed by some and disappointing to others, but we feel this is the best decision to balance our organizational values and an evolving legal framework.  

What's Next?

There are still numerous operational issues to address as we work to finalize the interim policy in the coming months. This may include adjustments to member and event registration forms, updates to procedures, and providing guidance to administrators and officials. 

As USMS transitions from this interim policy to a permanent one, we’re committed to continuing to hear your feedback. Please refer to our FAQs page and email eligibility@usmastersswimming.org to share your perspective, suggestions, and any other questions you may have. 

Thank you for being a member of USMS. 

Sincerely,

Dawson Hughes, CEO, U.S. Masters Swimming
Ed Coates, President, U.S. Masters Swimming

(6/16/25)