POLITICS
Texas Legislature Passes Anti-Trans Sports Bill
Advocates blast bill as another hateful attack on the trans community
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
The Texas House of Representatives
approved
a bill on October 14
prohibiting transgender
athletes from participating
in school sports teams that align
with their gender identity.
Under HB 25, public school
sports teams must use the sex
listed on a student athlete’s birth
certifi cate entered at the time or
near the time of their birth, effectively
blocking transgender players
from being able to participate.
The bill, led by Republican House
Representative Valoree Swanson
of Texas, passed by a 76 to
54 margin. The bill was also approved
by the State Senate, sending
it to Governor Greg Abbott’s
desk.
“The purpose of this Act is to
further the governmental interest
The Texas Legislatureapproved a bill that would ban trans students from school sports teams.
of ensuring that suffi cient interscholastic
athletic opportunities
remain available for girls to
remedy past discrimination on
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/MICHAEL BARERA
the basis of sex,” the bill states.
“An interscholastic athletic team
sponsored or authorized by a
school district or open-enrollment
charter school may not allow
a student to compete in an
interscholastic athletic competition
sponsored or authorized
by the district or school that is
designated for the biological sex
opposite to the student’s biological
sex.”
Swanson and other lawmakers
backed the bill using discriminatory
and false claims that trans
athletes have a competitive advantage
over cis women in sports. The
anti-LGBTQ politician added that
she is “excited that we have the opportunity
today to stand up for our
daughters, our granddaughters,
and all our Texas girls.”
The University Interscholastic
League (UIL) oversees k-12 public
school sports and determines gender
based on the sex recorded on a
student’s birth certifi cate, according
to the UIL non-discrimination
policies.
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