POLITICS 
 Mississippi, S. Dakota Pass Anti-Trans Sports Bills 
 GOP-led State Legislatures move ahead with discriminatory legislation 
 BY MATT TRACY 
 Legislation banning transgender  
 athletes from  
 participating  in  girls’  
 and women’s sports has  
 passed both chambers in Mississippi  
 and South Dakota, putting  
 the states on the brink of becoming  
 the fi rst two in the nation to  
 fi nalize such a law this year. 
 The Mississippi Fairness Act,  
 which requires schools and universities  
 to “designate teams by  
 biological sex,” cleared the lower  
 house by a 81-28 margin on March  
 3 after the State Senate approved  
 the bill last month in lopsided fashion, 
  34-9. Governor Tate Reeves, a  
 Republican, is expected to sign the  
 legislation into law. 
 Meanwhile, the same kind of bill  
 is on the way to South Dakota Governor  
 Kristi Noem’s desk — and she  
 is vowing to sign it. The legislation  
 The Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Mississippi.  
 in South Dakots stipulates that  
 schools and athletic associations  
 obtain written waivers showing every  
 student athlete’s “reproductive  
 biology,” according to NPR. 
 WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/ MICAHEL BARERA 
 The bills are two of dozens of  
 similar pieces of legislation circulating  
 statehouses across the  
 nation  in  the  midst  of  an  all-out  
 attack on transgender athletes —  
 with girls’ and women’s sports being  
 the center of attention. At least  
 60 bills have been fi led across 30  
 states, with anti-trans sports bills  
 clearing at least one chamber in  
 Montana, Tennessee, North Dakota, 
  South Dakota, and Mississippi, 
  according to Freedom for  
 All Americans, which is a bipartisan  
 group working on securing  
 non-discrimination  protections  
 for queer Americans. Among other  
 provisions, the Mississippi bill also  
 prohibits anyone from questioning  
 the very nature of the law. 
 “A government entity, any licensing  
 or  accrediting  organization, 
  or any athletic association or  
 organization shall not entertain a  
 complaint,  open  an  investigation,  
 or take any other adverse action  
 against a primary or secondary  
 school or institution of higher education  
 for maintaining separate interscholastic  
 or intramural athletic  
 teams or sports for students of the  
 female sex,” the bill states. 
 It  is possible  that bills  such as  
 the ones in Mississippi and South  
 Dakota could have a diffi cult time  
 standing  up  in  court.  Last  year,  
 Chief US District Judge David C.  
 Nye blocked a similar anti-trans  
 sports  bill  that  was  passed  and  
 signed into law in Idaho. 
 At the very least, advocates say  
 lawmakers did a poor job designing  
 the legislation. 
 “It will be the fi rst anti-trans bill  
 to pass and become law this year,  
 though it is so poorly drafted I  
 believe it is unenforceable,” Chase  
 Strnagio, deputy director for  
 Transgender Justice at the ACLU’s  
 LGBT and HIV Project, said after  
 Mississippi’s bill passed. 
 While lawmakers are again  
 equating  “biological  sex”  to  gender  
 assignments at birth, that is  
 a misleading term laced with false  
 assumptions about individuals’  
 identities.  Many  of  the  Republicans  
 who favored the bill cited the  
 usual arguments pushed by conservatives  
 — that transgender individuals  
 who participate in girls’  
 and women’s sports are somehow  
 violating fairness. 
 “As a father of a daughter, this  
 bill provides protection and promotes  
 fairness for all our children,”  
 Republican State Representative  
 Nick Bain of Mississippi said in a  
 tweet after the bill passed the lower  
 house. 
 The bill even drew considerable  
 bipartisan support, with several  
 Democrats voting in favor of the  
 bill. Multiple Democrats who voted  
 for the bill, including Representatives  
 Jon Lancaster and Cedric  
 Burnett, did not immediately respond  
 to Gay City News’ request for  
 comment on their vote. 
 Lawmakers are not only targeting  
 transgender individuals in  
 the sports world. Montana and  
 Alabama, meanwhile, have also  
 seen at least one of their respective  
 chambers pass legislation restricting  
 healthcare for trans youth this  
 year. 
 A broad range of corporations  
 and other businesses have typically  
 voiced opposition to anti-trans legislation  
 in statehouses, and 2021  
 is no different. More than 55 companies, 
  from Capitol One to Apple,  
 Facebook, PayPal, Microsoft, Uber,  
 and Amazon have signed a letter  
 rejecting state-based legislation  
 targeting trans folks, according to  
 Freedom for All Americans. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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