The Center Square | by Casey Harper | April 21, 2023
(The Center Square) – Republicans in the U.S. voted Thursday to pass the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” the latest salvo in the ongoing battle over transgender athletes.
The legislation would ban schools that receive federal funding, which is nearly all schools, from allowing biological males to compete in sports designated for women and girls.
“This is a great day for America and a great day for girls and women and for fairness in sports…” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said at a news conference outside the Capitol after the vote.
The issue has been thrust into the forefront after a string of biological males who transitioned went from mediocrity in men’s sports to dominating and breaking records in women’s sports. There also have been several women injured by transgender athletes.
President Joe Biden has threatened to veto the bill if it passes, but it is unclear if the bill could even get a vote in the Senate.
“The left’s lunacy is robbing women and girls of equal opportunities in the name of inclusion,” Republican Whip Tom Emmer said at the news conference.
Christiana Kiefer, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, a group that has represented young girls in lawsuits on this issue, heralded the bill’s passage. She pointed out the bill affirms Title IX protections for girls, though the Biden administration has tried to reinterpret the wording of that statute, an issue that will likely be decided in the courts.
“Girls shouldn’t be spectators in their own sports,” she said. “The ‘Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act’ reaffirms the vital protections for women’s sports guaranteed by Title IX, ensuring that women and girls truly have equal athletic opportunities. Women fought long and hard to remedy inequality in athletics, and allowing males to compete in girls’ sports reverses 50 years of advances secured for women under Title IX.”
