A growing number of states and members of the U.S. Congress are backing legislation to protect female athletes from competing against men who consider themselves to be transgender women. This is in contrast to President Joe Biden’s focus on expanding “gender identity” rights, including allowing them to serve in the U.S. military.
Biden also took early action to decide executively that Title IX, a statute to protect women from discrimination because of their biological sex at schools receiving federal funds, also protects “gender identity.”
Politico reported on the bill in at least six states and included talking points favored by LGBT activists who deny the reality of two sexes, i.e. “sex assigned at birth” and “limiting opportunities for transgender athletes”:
Lawmakers in Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee have introduced bills, and possibly more are in the works, according to the ACLU. The Montana House on Monday passed its bill, H.B. 112, and it will head to the Senate this week, the Helena Independent Record reported.
In 2020, lawmakers introduced 20 bills that sought to ban transgender people from participating in athletics, according to the ACLU. The bills also follow legislative action in Idaho, which was the first state to enact a law that bans transgender student athletes from women’s sports teams. The law is being challenged in federal court by the ACLU.
Two cases are making waves on the transgender student athlete policy front this spring, one in Idaho and another in Connecticut.
A federal judge temporarily blocked an Idaho law that limits participation in sports based on ones biological sex.
Lindsay Hecox, a man who is living as a woman, filed the lawsuit challenging the law, claiming “the law violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment and the unlawful searches and seizures clause of the Fourth Amendment,” Politico reported.
The lawyers for the state of Idaho have appealed the decision to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In another case, Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools, Inc. the Alliance Defending Freedom is suing Connecticut’s high school sports officials and five school boards over a state policy that allows students to play on teams according to their “gender identity.”
Congress is also pushing back against “gender identity” over biological sex.
Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) recently introduced the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2021,” which would make it illegal for schools that receive federal funds to allow biological men to compete against girls and women.
Steube’s bill if it becomes law would “guarantee that biological women are not forced to compete against biological men at all levels of athletic competition.”
“Other bills that were recently introduced have not advanced, but they set the marker for the new session,” Politico reported.
The Protect Women’s Sports Act, H.R. 8932 (116), introduced by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) and Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), would also prevent federal funding for schools allowing participation in sports based on “gender identity.”
In the Senate, former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), James Lankford (R-OK) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) also backed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
The left-wing American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) stance is included in the Politico article.
“While bills attacking trans youth have no chance of passing in the U.S. House, the rhetoric behind them emboldens political attacks on trans youth that are moving forward in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota and potentially other states,” Chase Strangio, deputy director for trans justice with the ACLU, said in a statement to Politico.
“Our courts have been clear — federal civil rights laws protect transgender people, including in our schools,” Strangio said. “Trans students belong in our schools and lawmakers that pass these political attacks on trans youth will see the ACLU in court.”
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