Washington — The House on Tuesday handed a Republican measure banning transgender women and girls from competing on faculty sports activities groups that match their gender identification after the celebration leaned into the problem throughout the 2024 marketing campaign.
The bill, referred to as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” would amend Title IX, the federal legislation banning intercourse discrimination in colleges, to acknowledge an individual’s “intercourse” as “primarily based solely on an individual’s reproductive biology and genetics at beginning.” Schools who enable “an individual whose intercourse is male to take part in an athletic program or exercise that’s designated for ladies or ladies” threat dropping federal funding.
It handed within the House with 218 voting in favor, 206 voting in opposition to and one voting current. Two Democrats from Texas — Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez — joined all Republicans in assist of the invoice. Democratic Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina voted current.
“An overwhelming majority of Americans imagine that males do not belong in girls’s sports activities and that we should enable frequent sense to prevail,” Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida, who launched the invoice, stated throughout flooring debate forward of the vote.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 3% of highschool college students determine as transgender. Polling in recent years has discovered a scarcity of assist for transgender athletes taking part on sports activities groups that match their gender identification and about half of states restrict transgender athlete participation.
House Republicans handed the invoice in 2023 with no Democratic assist. The Senate, which was then managed by Democrats, didn’t take it up. House Republicans vowed to prioritize the problem once more this yr after GOP campaigns spent tens of tens of millions of {dollars} on adverts final yr that characterised the problem as a risk to women and girls in sports activities. An analogous measure has been reintroduced within the Republican-controlled Senate.
During flooring debate, Republicans argued that these athletes have organic benefits which can be unfair and unsafe for different women and girls. Democrats against the measure stated it opens the door to intrusive genital examinations of women.
“We’re already seeing examples of harassment and questioning of women who could not conform to stereotypical female roles,” stated Democratic Rep. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon.
But there are a variety of average Democrats who’ve expressed some concern on the problem, particularly after the Democrats’ 2024 election losses. One of these Democrats is Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who voted in opposition to the ban when it got here up for a vote in 2023 however since has questioned his party’s messaging on transgender rights.
“Democrats spend manner an excessive amount of time making an attempt to not offend anybody reasonably than being brutally sincere concerning the challenges many Americans face,” Moulton told the New York Times. “I’ve two little ladies, I do not need them getting run over on a enjoying subject by a male or previously male athlete, however as a Democrat I’m speculated to be afraid to say that.”
Moulton voted in opposition to the measure that handed Tuesday.
