Louisiana Senate Passes Transgender Athlete Bill, Governor Deems It 'Unnecessary'

The Louisiana Senate this week approved a bill to protect women’s sports, requiring individuals to compete against others of their biological sex.

Senate Bill 44, dubbed the “Fairness in Womens Sports Act,” specifically “requires an athletic team or sporting event sponsored by an elementary, secondary, or postsecondary educational institution to be designated based upon the biological sex of team members,” either as an all male team, all female team, or “coeducational or mixed team.”

“Athletic teams or sporting events designated for females, girls, or women shall not be open to students who are not biologically female,” the bill states.

Additionally, the proposal provides protections for schools, school boards, school coaches, school employees, school board members, postsecondary education management boards, and postsecondary education board members who prevent a biological male claiming to be a woman from competing in women’s sports.

“Biological females placed second and third in tournaments that had been always a woman’s sport. We learned that the winning teams of Olympic women’s finalists could not even meet qualifying times for high school boys’ sports,” Sen. Beth Mizell (R),  the bill’s sponsor, said in a statement.

Gov. John Bel Edwards (D), however, has called the bill “unnecessary” and “mean-spirited.”

“I would hope it doesn’t reach my desk,” he said of the legislation last month. “It’s pretty sad because it’s theoretically a bill about unfairness, but … that unfairness, it isn’t happening in Louisiana.”

“But what is happening is we have some young people who have pretty severe mental illness in some cases, or I should say emotional issues and it just seems this is piling on, to me,” he added.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) also lashed out, deeming the legislation a “direct attack on transgender youth.”

“This unfair separation not only deprives LGBTQ+ kids from participating in athletics, it further isolates them from their fellow students,” the organization said, seemingly ignoring the concerns of biological women, some of whom have been displaced by male athletes.

Several other states have already enacted similar measures to protect women, including Florida, Mississippi, and Texas. Other states legislatures,  including those in Kansas, Utah, and Indiana, have attempted to pass similar measures but have faced roadblocks from their respective governors.