House GOP Fast-Tracks Transgender Athlete Ban
rules package, 12 bills that Republican lawmakers have long prioritized — primarily having to do with immigration, anti-abortion measures, and fracking — are to be voted upon “as read.”Among those is a measure to “amend the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with Title IX of such Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”The description of the measure appears to be a reference to a bill re-introduced by U.S.
Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) known as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.”The proposed legislation bars any entity that receives federal funding and that “operates, sponsors or facilitates an athletic program or activity” from allowing a person whose assigned sex at birth is male to participate in an activity specifically designated for females.Male individuals may practice with a female sports team but may not participate in female-designated activities.
The bill states that “sex shall be recognized as based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” It also directs the Comptroller General to report on how allowing a transgender person to compete on female-designated sports teams would allegedly negatively impact female athletes.A previous version of Steube’s bill passed the U.S.
House of Representatives in 2023, but failed to receive a vote in the Senate, which was controlled by Democrats at the time.A companion bill is being introduced in the Senate by Sen.
