Bentley Hudgins, the Georgia state director of the Human Rights Campaign, criticized limiting access for transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, saying Thursday that state lawmakers are focused on the wrong issues.
Hudgins joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s “Politically Georgia” to discuss what transgender issues could be proposed in the state’s upcoming 40-day legislative session.
“I don’t think it would be unlikely that we might see something like a categorical ban or something to deal with the participation of trans people in athletics in Georgia,” said Hudgins, who identifies as nonbinary and prefers the “they” pronoun.
But Hudgins said if there is a push for restrictions on transgender athletes from Republican state legislators, they are focused on the wrong issues.
“It would be a really bad step to spend that time attacking a really small group of people rather than making decisions that keep all of us in a better place,” they said.
Hudgins also criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign ads that took aim at transgender athletes for missing the point of why voters cast their ballots for Trump and deepening the political divide among Americans.
“I’m seeing that this election was a referendum on the economy, not the Republican platform overall,” they said.
In Georgia, Hudgins said equality is still important among voters.
“We know that equality is a winning issue,” Hudgins said. “And we know that a majority of people in Georgia want to live in a state where discrimination is not an issue.”
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