The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that aims to bar transgender women and girls from participating in female athletic programs in schools.
The House passed the bill, titled the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” on Tuesday, though it was a divided vote, 218 to 206, almost entirely on party lines.
The bill would prohibit federal funding from going to K-12 schools that include transgender students on women’s sports teams. It seeks to amend federal law to require that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth,” to determine compliance with Title IX in athletics, according to the legislative text.
Although it was passed by the House, the bill still needs to be approved by the Senate, and ultimately signed by the President, to become law. At the Senate level, it’s far from certain the bill will be passed, as seven Democrats would have to join the Republicans in voting in favor of it.
Barring trans participation in female sports was part of the Republican platform in the recent U.S. election, arguing that transgender women hold physical advantages over cisgender women, while Democrats have generally been opposed to these types of bills and believe the policies discriminate against transgender students and could be harmful to their mental health.
The New York Times reports that just two Democrats joined all Republicans in voting in favor of the bill, while another Democrat simply voted “present,” declining to take a position.
“The overwhelming majority believe men don’t belong in women’s sports,” said Representative Greg Steube, the Florida Republican who sponsored the measure, according to The New York Times. “This bill will deliver upon the mandate the American people gave Congress.”
Democrats, however, have dubbed the bill the “Child Predator Empowerment Act,” and claim it’s an invasion of privacy for young girls that puts them at greater risk.
The New York Times report adds: “(Democrats) also pointed to the bill as the latest example of an unhealthy fixation among Republicans with trying to restrict the rights of transgender individuals, when they could be spending their time passing legislation to create jobs or reduce the prices of groceries.”
The bill would not “prohibit schools or institutions from permitting males to practice against women’s sports teams,” according to a fact sheet from the House committee on Education and the Workforce.
It doesn’t prohibit males from training or practicing with an athletic program or activity designated for women or girls, “so long as no female is deprived of a roster spot on a team or sport, opportunity to participate in a practice or competition, scholarship, admission to an educational institution, or any other benefit that accompanies participating in the athletic program or activity,” the legislative text reads, according to CNN.
However, the Education committee fact sheet states that under the bill, “a recipient of federal education funding violates Title IX’s prohibition against sex discrimination if the recipient operates, sponsors, or facilitates athletic programs or activities and allows a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls.”
The participation of transgender women in female sports came to the forefront during the 2021-22 NCAA season, when University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas competed on the women’s team after transitioning from male to female in 2019.
Thomas won the 2022 Women’s NCAA title in the 500 freestyle, and also tied for 5th in the 200 free and 8th in the 100 free. She has not competed since, opposing World Aquatics’ restriction on transgender participation, but ultimately losing the legal battle in 2024.
World Aquatics has since experimented with an ‘open’ category, where transgender athletes are able to compete.
In April 2024, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced a new policy that bans transgender participation in women’s sports.
In 2022, the NCAA updated its transgender policy with a sport-by-sport approach where each discipline’s guidelines would be determined by the existing policy for the national governing body (NGB) of that sport, hoping to align with the Olympic Movement.
Regardless of which side of the issue anyone comes down on, this is not the role of Congress. There are governing bodies throughout athletics, domestically and internationally, that can address this. Hey Congress, stay in your lane. Ha ha, get it?
Based
Surprised it was that close, but glad that common sense prevails!
Could someone from the US please explain the connection with what they are calling the Child Predator Empowerment Act?
bigotry
Finally doing something about the price of eggs!
Gotta love how situational the importance of “protecting women” is to them.
🎯
Mic drop
This is literally the only thing Republicans in Congress can accomplish. They can’t elect a speaker or change a light bulb without a massive food fight among morons like Greene, Comer, and Boebert. Performance art at its finest.
That’s why you need the New Yorker ones like Lawler or Kim in California.
Can anyone make a logical argument why someone born male should be able to compete against females (let’s focus on high school and college)
Just don’t understand how anyone could be for allowing people born male to compete against females. But do want to be open minded to learning
The best argument in favor of trans women in women’s sports, as far as I can tell, is that being born male is an advantage in sports the same way that being really tall is (in most sports), so it’s not something you ban people for just because it could be unfair.
The counter-argument to that is that men can simply choose to transition despite not truly identifying as female, just to gain an advantage in sport, and the counter to that is that 1. Nobody does this, 2. Even if someone were too, undergoing HRT nerfs some of your athletic ability, so the advantage isn’t that straightforward
I’m not choosing a side here, but this is the… Read more »
Swimswam commenter: Hey, Mr. Congressman, what did you do today?
Congressman: I passed a bill banning trans athletes in woman’s sports
Swimswam commenter: Loser! Sports are useless! Make eggs cheaper!
Congressman: are you against the bill
Swimswam commenter: I don’t know, but you suck!
The simple answer is it doesn’t hurt anyone and is good for them. Despite what many assume, studies trying to determine whether trans women who transitioned after puberty have an athletic advantage have been inconclusive, and generally lean towards a conclusion that there is no advantage. The studies will likely remain inconclusive because there simply aren’t enough trans women athletes for a large enough sample size to get worthwhile data. So there’s no strong evidence that allowing trans girls/women harms cisgirls/women in any way, and arguments that they are disadvantaged are based on nothing but vibes.
On the other hand, there’s tons of evidence that participation in athletics is good for young people. There’s plenty of evidence that being… Read more »
Compare mens world records and women’s and get back to me. This isn’t barring children from playing sports and if someone wants to transition when they’re an adult then they can participate in sports for fun, not in a controlled competitive environment.
Yeah but the same nutjobs go crazy when transwomen compete in adult recreational sports.
Methinks it’s not really about the sports…