Bill To Ban Trans Girls From Competing In School Sports Introduced By PA GOP Women
Spotlightpa.com reported on Monday (April 5) that, “Five female Republican state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would ban transgender students in Pennsylvania from playing women’s sports, the latest in a nationwide wave of legislation advocates say risks the health of trans children and adults.
The bill targets high school and college athletes who were assigned male at birth and play on teams with other girls and women as a means of bolstering gender-based protections under the federal civil rights statute known as Title IX, according to its sponsors.”
HB-972 ,”The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” was introduced by Reps. Barb Gleim (R-Cumberland), Martina White (R-Philadelphia), Valerie Gaydos (R- Allegheny), Dawn Keefer (York/Cumberland) and Stephanie Borowicz (R- Clinton/Centre)
From Rep. Gleim’s website:
On June 23, 1972, Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972, which bars sex discrimination in education programs and activities offered by entities receiving federal financial assistance. Title IX was designed to stop discrimination and create equal athletic opportunities for women.
On Feb. 20, the current administration’s first day in office, an executive order was filed to require that biological males be permitted to compete on women’s sports teams in high school and college. That order violates Title IX and would effectively end girls’ and women’s competitive sports.
If courts were to uphold this executive order, any school that receives federal funding, including nearly every public high school, must either allow biological boys who self-identify as girls on to girls’ sports teams or face administrative action from the Department of Education.
Allowing biological males to compete in biological female’s sports would reverse nearly 50 years of advances for women.
I’ll veto this discriminatory ban if it reaches my desk.
— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) April 6, 2021
To Pennsylvania’s trans youth: You belong. You are valued. Participate in the school activities that make you happiest. I’ll be cheering you on. https://t.co/D12O7CNmCR
According to Spotlight, the Republican women’s claims about Biden’s order, “is exaggerated and missing context, per a USA Today fact-check. The order reaffirms and builds on a U.S. Supreme Court decision that found protections against workplace discrimination on the basis of “sex” should also apply to gender identity or sexual orientation.
Biden’s order does not address existing rules governing how and when transgender athletes can compete. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, for example, requires transgender women to complete a year of hormone therapy before competing on a women’s team, while the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, which governs junior and high school sports, allows individual principals to decide a school’s policy.”