Tag Archives: transgender girls

Texas House votes to ban transgender girls from sports

By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) – The Texas House of Representatives passed a bill that bans transgender women and girls from participating in school sports after three previous attempts failed, all but assuring Republican Governor Greg Abbott will sign it into law.

Texas is now poised to join seven other states that passed similar laws this year, part of a national campaign in which Republican legislators introduced such bills in 32 states. The bills are aimed at preventing transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams.

Conservatives say they are protecting fair competition, but equal rights activists have criticized the campaign as a discriminatory attack on transgender people, saying there is no evidence that trans women and girls are dominating sports.

Political analysts say the campaign is meant to animate hard-core Republican supporters.

“There’s no evidence that there’s a problem. This is red meat for the base,” said Robert Stein, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston.

While the Texas Senate passed a companion bill, three previous House versions of the legislation stalled in the public education committee, which has a Democratic chairman. Republicans then created a new version of the bill and sent it through a select committee they control, enabling it to pass the full House late Thursday.

The bill has gone back to the Senate for procedural approval and is expected to reach Abbott’s desk.

Texas Republicans have passed a very conservative agenda this year, including new laws that make it more difficult to vote, all but ban abortion, and do away with the need for a permit to carry a concealed handgun.

“Like a lot of other things in Texas politics right now, this is selling mainly to very ideologically driven voters in the Republican Party. These are the voters that show up for Republican primaries,” said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas.

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee and West Virginia have passed similar transgender sports legislation, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has signed an executive order supporting a transgender sports ban. Some of these face legal challenges.

Idaho passed a similar law last year that has been blocked by a federal court, and a federal court in July ruled that an 11-year-old West Virginia trans girl must be allowed to try out for the girls’ track and cross-country teams at her school in defiance of a similar law passed in April.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

U.S. government weighs in against trans girls competing on girls’ teams

By Matthew Lavietes

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Allowing transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports leagues is illegal and could mean schools allowing the practice lose federal funding, the U.S. Education Department ruled in a letter made public on Thursday.

The policy violates federal civil rights law that guarantees equal education for women, the department’s civil rights office said in the 45-page letter to the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC).

The ruling came in response to a federal lawsuit filed by three female track runners from the state of Connecticut who argued they were put at a physical disadvantage competing against trans athletes.

It solidified the federal government’s stance in the controversial debate that is playing out in states nationwide.

Connecticut is one of 18 U.S. states that allow trans high school athletes to compete without restrictions, according to Transathlete.com, a website that compiles information on trans inclusion in athletics.

The Education Department said it would either withhold federal funding for the Connecticut school districts where they runners competed or refer the cases to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The letter said the school’s policy has “denied female student-athletes athletic benefits and opportunities” including higher-level competitions, recognition and visibility to colleges.

In response, the CIAC said its policy protected transgender athletes from discrimination.

“Connecticut law is clear and students who identify as female are to be recognized as female for all purposes — including high school sports,” the athletic conference said in a statement.

“To do otherwise would not only be discriminatory but would deprive high school students of the meaningful opportunity to participate in educational activities … based on sex-stereotyping and prejudice,” it said.

Male-to-female trans athletes have been allowed to compete in the International Olympic Games since 2016 if their testosterone levels meet a certain low level for a year.

Idaho became the first U.S. state to pass a law barring trans high school athletes from playing in sports leagues that differ from their gender at birth. Several other states are considering similar restrictions.

The lawsuit was filed in February by the three runners against the CIAC and a number of local boards of education.

(Reporting by Matthew Lavietes, editing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)