More than 400 civil rights organizations have urged Congress to vote against a bill that would ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
In a letter sent to legislators on Monday, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and 405 other civil rights organizations that support LGBTQ issues asked them to reject The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. In a press release, the Leadership Conference called the legislation, “the latest of a series of harmful bills on the national and municipal levels that are an assault on transgender and nonbinary students.”
The House last year passed the bill, sponsored by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., by a 219-203 vote, with no Democrat support, but it languished in the Democrat-controlled Senate. House Republicans proposed Steube’s bill as part of the rules package for the 119th Congress. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has sponsored a similar bill in the Senate.
The bill counters the Biden Administration’s expansion to Title IX of 1972, which prohibited discrimination in education based on sex, by preventing discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. A federal court struck down the expansion last week as well as in 26 other states following a wave of legal challenges. According to the new law, a person’s gender is determined solely by their reproductive biology and genes at birth.
The letter said, “This discriminatory proposal seeks a ban on transgenders, nonbinary people, and intersex individuals from school athletics programs.” The authors of this bill claim to be serving the interests of cisgender women and girls, but the law does not address long-standing barriers that girls and women face in their pursuit of sports.
The bill, which cynically disguises an attack on transgenders as a matter of athletics policy, does not provide equal facilities, travel and equipment, or any other strategy women athletes have been advocating for decades.
Donald Trump, the president-elect, campaigned against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
The Hill reported that the House will likely consider Steube’s bill on Tuesday. The Hill reported that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) took steps last week to put the measure on the Senate’s calendar, without going through a committee. A vote is expected in the next few weeks.
According to The Hill, 97 Republicans from the House and Senate have backed the legislation. They argue that such legislation is necessary to protect female athletes and maintain an even playing field for women’s sports.
