Lawmakers in several states are offering legislation regarding girls and women’s sports teams in response to President Joe Biden’s directive to allow transgender athletes to compete with the group of their choice in school sports.
Legislators in more than a dozen states have introduced bills to protect girls and women’s sports, The Daily Signal reports. The Washington Times reports 25 states have begun the process of legislation in response to the Equality Act, a bill before Congress that would expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, and other areas of public life.
In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill banning transgender athletes from competing against girls or women. Reeves expressed the importance of providing opportunities for girls.
“I never imagined dealing with this, but POTUS [Biden] left us no choice,” Reeves said in a tweet. “One of his first acts was to sign an EO [executive order] encouraging transgenderism in children. So today, I proudly signed the Mississippi Fairness Act to ensure young girls are not forced to compete against biological males.”
Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee also expressed support for protecting girls’ and women’s sports.
“Transgenders participating in women’s sports will destroy women’s sports,” Lee stated. “It will ruin the opportunity for girls to earn scholarships. It will put a glass ceiling back over women that hasn’t been there.”
The Montana state legislature proposed the Save Women’s Sports Act, which is expected to pass and be signed by the governor.
Georgia and Alabama lawmakers are working on bills to require athletes to compete in the gender of their birth.
At the federal level, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) reintroduced the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act in February. The bill would ensure females do not have to compete against biological males in sporting events.
Lee’s bill has the endorsement of several organizations, such as Concerned Women for America, the American Principles Project, Family Research Council, Ethics & Public Policy Center, Alliance Defending Freedom, Save Women’s Sports, Heritage Action for America, Independent Women’s Forum, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Family Policy Alliance.
Beth Stelzer, an amateur power lifter and president of Save Women’s Sports, says most people don’t understand the real implications of Biden’s policy and the Equality Act.
“We have such a lack of knowledge about it,” Stelzer told the Washington Times. “People just don’t understand the threat that this is. By hopefully getting some of these state laws through, we can awaken people to what’s happening to women.”
Autumn Leva of the Family Policy Alliance says Biden’s policy agenda would “erase women.”
“It’s Women’s History Month, and the Biden Administration is celebrating by calling for at least four radical policy changes since taking the oath of office that would erase women,” writes Leva. “He’s signed three executive orders changing the definition of sex to mean that any man can declare he’s a woman at any time, without any evidence or medical intervention, and for any length of time.”
The Equality Act erases years of efforts to provide opportunities and safety for girls and women, the Black Christian News Network reports.
“Equality cannot be achieved while eliminating other basic, fundamental freedoms,” BCNN reports. “This departure from a legal understanding of gender as male and female makes women and girls vulnerable to biological males being in their private spaces. For example, shelters for those women and girls escaping domestic abuse or homelessness would be forced to house biological men who identify as female. This legislation disregards the privacy and safety concerns women rightly have about sharing sleeping quarters and intimate facilities with the opposite sex.”
In addition to sports opportunities, the Equality Act would force everyone to allow biological males identifying as transgender to use girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and other now-private spaces. The law would effectively eliminate females’ right to privacy nationwide.
Chris Vosmeier, father of three girls, says there are commonsense alternatives to the Equality Act and Biden’s order.
“I would be very concerned if our school allowed boys that think they are girls to use the same restrooms,” Vosmeier said. “I can understand that these individuals may feel uncomfortable using the boy’s bathrooms, just as the girls would feel having them in their bathrooms. I would suggest that schools or any facility may need to add a third option, either family bathrooms or alternative bathrooms.”
Abigail Schrier told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee the Equality Act would allow biological men identifying as female to be housed in women’s prisons and women’s shelters would not be able to remain women-only.
The bill would impose a radical ideology on religious groups, said Mary Rice Hasson of the Ethics and Public Policy Center at the Senate hearing.
The Equality Act “seeks to coerce religious believers to exit the public square unless they’re willing to sacrifice their religious beliefs for today’s reigning ideologies,” Hasson testified.
Lawmakers should allow people to have different views and not coerce them into accepting a government-mandated social ideology, Vosmeier says.
“All people should be treated equally and not discriminated against,” Vosmeier said. “That includes those that identify as they were born. The way people act should not be forced on those that think differently.”
