As Tennessee lawmakers prepare to return next week for their annual legislative session, one bill is already making headlines.
A Republican state lawmaker wants to prohibit transgender teens from competing in athletic competitions based on their gender identity. Tennessee House Bill 1572 would require the athletes to participate only in competitions matching their biological sex.
State Rep. Bruce Griffey told the Tennessee Star, "We are seeing more and more transgender athletes competing and posting victories in traditionally gendered sports competitions, and doing so to the detriment of girls and women biologically born female. Boys and men, due to testosterone levels, bigger bone structure, greater lung capacity, and larger heart size, have physical advantages in sports relative to girls and women."
Read the bill here:
Griffey said his bill comes as a response to the Equality Act, which was passed by the Democratic-led U.S. House last year. If the bill, which is now in the GOP-controlled Senate, becomes law, it would add gender identity and sexual orientation as protected statuses under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
At the same time, a newly elected Georgia legislator has set the stage for what could be an emotional debate over how schools and communities treat transgender student-athletes.
Filed by Sharpsburg Republican Philip Singleton, House Bill 747 states that public fields, stadiums and gyms can't be used by a sports team with a transgender member. Singleton is calling his bill "Student Athlete Protection Act."
Three high school female runners in Connecticut filed a Title IX complaint contending they suffer an unfair disadvantage competing against two high school transgender track and field athletes. The complaint seeks to overturn a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference policy that permits athletes to compete based on the gender with which they identify.
Connecticut is among 17 states with such a policy.
“With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushing through passage in the U.S. House of Representative HR 5 – the Equality Act – that, among other things, creates a civil right for male athletes to self-identify as females in sports competitions, I believe it is important for states to take a stand,” Griffey said.
Griffey’s bill would would require public elementary and secondary schools to “ensure that student athletes participate in school-sanctioned sports based on the student’s biological sex as indicated on certificate issued at time of birth,” according to the proposed law’s language. It would also impose a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for any official who fails to comply.
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