The Texas legislature has approved a bill that would ban transgender athletes from participating in college sports teams that align with their gender identity.
The ban now goes to Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) for a signature. Abbot has previously expressed support for the bill and is expected to sign it into law.
The measure, SB15, would require transgender athletes in any intercollegiate athletic competition sponsored or authorized by a public college or university to compete on the team corresponding to the gender they were assigned at birth. if signed into law, the bill would provide whistleblower protection for those reporting college programs that violate the law and would allow people to bring civil lawsuits against a university if they believe its program has broken the law, The Texas Tribune reported that.
Lawmakers said the bill does not apply to intramural sports, the The Texas Tribune reported that. It would allow women to compete on a men’s team for a sport without a women’s team, the outlet said.
The Senate passed the final version of the bill Friday by a vote of 19 to 12 after minor amendments from the state House.
The NCAA has allowed transgender athletes to participate in college sports for more than a decade, but switched to a sport-by-sport approach in 2022. Debates about transgender athletes are ongoing, especially amid the slew of anti-transgender legislation across the country.
Opponents of letting trans athletes compete say transgender women have an unfair advantage over cisgender women due to biological differences.
But LGBTQ+ advocates, organizations and experts have disprove such claims, noting that the athletic ability of transgender athletes varies, as it does with cisgender athletes, and that such legislation discriminates against transgender athletes. Tthese groups also say that such legislation could open the door to degrading treatment of all athletes who are women and girls who do not conform to culturally accepted standards of femininity.
LGBTQ+ advocates voted down the Texas bill during the legislative session, echoing similar sentiments about the harmful nature of banning transgender athletes from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
“Trans people belong in sports, just as they belong in the arts, technology and politics. Transgenders are included. Period of time.”
– Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez
“SB 15 directly targets transgender collegiate athletes and prevents them from having equal access to the same opportunities and benefits that cisgender collegiate athletes have, even though transgender athletes have been participating in collegiate sports with their cisgender counterparts without incident since the early 2000s Shelly Skeen, an attorney at Lambda Legal, said in a rack last week.
“The purpose and effect of this law is to deprive and exclude transgender collegiate athletes,” she continued. “Excluding transgender athletes from sports competition harms all collegiate athletes and the student body as a whole by depriving students of the full scope of the college experience.”
The legislation comes a month after the Biden administration suggested a rule that would ban blanket bans on transgender athletes participating in school sports teams that align with their gender identity. The White House proposal was criticized by some LGBTQ+ advocates who noted that schools receiving federal funding could still have policies restricting transgender athletes from playing sports.
SB15 is one of several bills targeting transgender people passed in Texas, including one that would give the state the largest in the nation to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
Have at least 20 states in the US imposed restrictions on transgender athletes. Almost 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were passed in states across the country in the past year, restricting access to gender-affirming care, drag shows, and using bathrooms that align with one’s gender identity.
“Trans people belong in sports, just as they belong in the arts, technology and politics. Transgenders are included. Period of time. This bill is just one of many bills that target trans-Texans and seek to remove them from public life,” Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez said in a statement. rack about the law in Texas earlier this month.