The first step toward preventing transgender students from participating in girls’ track and field events came Tuesday when the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act.
Bill – HR 28 – Amend Title IX to prohibit schools from allowing transgender female athletes to participate in athletic programs or activities “designated for women or girls.”
It defines gender as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) was the lead sponsor and received co-sponsorship from Libertine. Dan Meuser (R-09). The bill passed by a vote of 218-206-1, with all 10 members of Pennsylvania’s Republican delegation voting for the bill and seven Democratic members voting against it.
The legislation is a cornerstone of the GOP education agenda and will ensure a priority of the incoming Trump administration.
One of Pennsylvania’s newest members of Congress, Representative Rob Bresnahan (R-08), says he voted to protect female athletes and give them the opportunities they have rightfully earned to showcase their incredible talents.
“Women and girls deserve a fair and equal playing field and the opportunity to succeed in women’s sports without the participation of biological males,” he wrote on Twitter. “Men and women are biologically and physically different, and allowing biological men to compete physically jeopardizes the safety of NEPA female athletes.”
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-05) condemned the bill as a “red herring”.
“The bill makes no effort to address the real barriers women and girls face in high school athletics, including sexual harassment and assault and lack of equal resources and opportunities,” she said in a statement. “Instead, H.R. 28 discriminates against transgender and intersex children as young as age 4 by barring them from participating in school sports with friends and creating a system that could lead to invasive testing of youth to confirm their gender.
“I met with trans children and teenagers and their parents and saw the enormous struggles these families face – including a lack of understanding and outright prejudice. Instead of protecting these defenseless children, H.R. 28 arms the federal government to further discriminate against them.”
Rep. Summer Lee (D-12) joined Scanlon in opposition.
“House Republicans have lost the plot so much that in their supposed crusade to ‘protect women and girls’ they passed a bill that could subject any girl or woman to invasive genital examinations, medical tests and molestation,” she wrote on Twitter. “If House Republicans cared about women’s sports, they would fight for equal pay, increased access to opportunities and an end to the systemic problems that leave women in sports undervalued and undervalued. They only care if it’s an opportunity to demonize trans people.”
Three members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives – Rep. Barbara Gleim (R-Cumberland), Martyna Biała (Republic of Philadelphia) i Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R-Clinton/Union) distribute reinstatement sponsorship memoranda “Save the Women’s Sports Act”, that would ensure that women are not forced to compete with biological men playing on women’s sports teams.
White tweeted that the passage of the bill was a “HUGE victory for women athletes today in Washington! Great job by everyone involved in protecting women’s sport!”
The bill’s future in the U.S. Senate is unclear. The upper chamber will be the focus President-elect Donald Trump Cabinet appointments throughout most of the week. The bill could also stall because it would require support from Democrats in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Trump has promised to address women’s athletics and has signaled that when he takes office on Monday, he may issue an executive order banning women and transgender girls from participating in women’s sports.
