CeCe Telfer won an NCAA title as a transgender woman in 2019, and recently said on CNN that the “anti-trans rhetoric has become louder, more in my face” ever since President Donald Trump was sworn in last month.
Earlier this month, the president signed an executive order that would prohibit transgender girls and women from competing against biological females in athletics. The Department of Education has also called for prior titles won by trans women to be stripped.
“Prior to this set-in-stone administration, I woke up every day and I faced adversaries when I leave my house. Now, I wake up every day and I have to make sure that I make it home alive,” Telfer said, adding that “each of my identities” as a Black trans woman is a “target.”
“It’s really sad to see people go out of their way to make it known you don’t belong here. But every day, I wake up, I decide to go out and live my life, (it) proves that I do belong here. And just existing is resilience.
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CeCe Telfer of Franklin Pierce wins the 400 meter hurdles during the Division II Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships held at Javelina Stadium on May 25, 2019 in Kingsville, Texas. (Rudy Gonzalez/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
“It’s sad to see that one of the most powerful countries in the world would ostracize and de-humanize a group of people, a small group of athletes, too, but also as transgender women overall. I’ve done nothing wrong but try to be a good, contributing member of society,” Telfer added. “I pay my taxes. I go to school. I try to leave the world better than when I came into it. And if the president doesn’t see us, then we’ll make ourselves be seen and known with goodness and love, because that’s all we have to offer.”
As the Trump administration continues to fight to keep biological males out of women’s sports, Telfer is “willing to sit down” with “Trump himself” about his order and transgenderism in sports.
“I’m willing to sit down with the IOC, the USATF, the NCAA, with any of my international federations, even the Trump administration, Trump himself, if he wants to sit down with me and talk and have a human conversation and see me. I feel as though social media is very loud, and just to have a human sit across from you and have a conversation with them, it’s very different. So I’m willing to have a conversation if they’re willing to give me that chance,” Telfer said.
Cece Telfer attends Corey O’Brien’s “Everyone Loves Corey” at The Comedy Chateau on November 02, 2023 in North Hollywood, California. (Victoria Sirakova/Getty Images for Corey O’Brien)
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“I need some explanation as to why you want to completely eradicate us from society when we’ve done nothing wrong. Think about the humanity and think about the younger kids like me who have doctors confirming their gender, have people behind them. Even if he wants to have a team go around with me and see my day-to-day life and what I go through as a transgender female athlete, all for it.”
Telfer added that despite the perceived increase in anti-trans rhetoric, and calls for titles won by trans athletes to be revoked, the title Telfer won is even more vindicated, “because it makes me feel like not only was history made then, but it’ll stay in the books and be reminded that policies and orders are not forever, but our resilience is.”
“If somebody’s truly a part of the Department of Education, they would be smart and educated enough to know that something like that, that’s not how history works, and that’s not how the direction of progressiveness works. You can’t take back history,” Telfer said, adding the NCAA was “pressured” to change their rules and follow suit with Trump’s order.
“They were on the right side of history — I don’t know what happened,” Telfer added.
US President Donald Trump signs the No Men in Women’s Sports Executive Order into law in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 5, 2025. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
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Telfer was ruled ineligible to compete at the U.S. Olympic trials in 2021, two years after taking home the 2019 Division II Women’s 400m hurdles title.
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