Pennsylvania Governor Vetoes Transgender Sports Ban
bill, which sailed through the Republican-led legislature on largely party-line votes, would have required public K-12 schools and colleges to designate sports as male, female, or coed.
For female-designated sports, athletes would only be allowed to participate if they were assigned female at birth.The bill is silent on male-designated sports, presumably allowing transgender males and cisgender females to participate on boys’ teams, such as football team, in cases where there is not a team specifically designated for girls.
Heretofore, such allowances were considered in compliance with Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational settings.The bill would have prohibited any governmental agency or athletic association from taking adverse actions against schools enforcing sex-specific restrictions, and would have allowed students who believe they’ve been deprived of athletic opportunities due to competing against transgender athletes to sue schools and school districts for damages.
Similar bans on transgender athletes have passed in other states with Republican-run legislatures, with at least 19 states explicitly barring transgender girls and women from competing in female-designated sports.Proponents of the bill argued that segregating sports based on assigned sex at birth is necessary to level the playing field for cisgender women, who are at a physical disadvantage when competing against transgender athletes, according to The Associated Press.But opponents said there have not been enough instances of transgender athletes in Pennsylvania performing at a level where their participation would threaten the performances of cisgender females.
