On Tuesday, January 14, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill banning transgender women and girls from participating on school-sponsored sports teams matching their gender identity.

The bill, dubbed the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” prohibits any institutions that receive federal funding from allowing any athlete who was not assigned female at birth to participate on sports teams designated for girls.

The bill does not eliminate co-ed or intramural sports teams, in which males and females alike can compete. Nor does it prohibit cisgender female students from trying out for, or competing on, non-contact sports teams traditionally designated for males. The latter instance is something that cisgender female athletes can request under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination, if their school does not offer a particular sport to female students.

The proposed transgender sports ban was approved on a largely party-line vote of 218 to 206, with two Democrats — U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas — voting in favor of the bill and a third — U.S. Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina — voting “present, according to The New York Times.

The bill now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate. But due to the filibuster, seven Democrats would have to vote with Republicans to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to end debate on the bill before it receives an up-or-down vote. 

Republicans — who have seized on Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential race as evidence that a slew of anti-transgender attack ads resonated with voters —  have cast the measure as necessary to protect the safety of cisgender female athletes and ensure they are not denied opportunities to excel by being forced to compete against athletes assigned male at birth. Republicans also see the issue as one on which they align more closely with the views of most Americans than do Democrats, creating a perfect wedge issue with which to bludgeon Democrats in future election cycles.

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“The overwhelming majority believe men don’t belong in women’s sports,” U.S. Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), the sponsor of the measure, said during debate on the measure. “This bill will deliver upon the mandate the American people gave Congress.”

Under a package of House rules, approved by Republicans last week, the bill — and 11 other measures dealing with crime, immigration, fracking, anti-abortion restrictions, and voting restrictions that are an attempt to placate conservative voters — was required to be fast-tracked and voted upon “as read,” meaning no amendments or alterations could be made to the legislation.

Steube also blasted Democrats as being beholden to the “radical Left who seek to dismantle the core foundation of our society” by recognizing more than two genders, adding: “In worship to their trans idols, radical leftists want to kill Title IX.”

But Democrats slammed the bill as a measure that would infringe on student-athletes’ privacy and subject athletes — not solely those who are transgender, but primarily cisgender females who don’t ascribe to stereotypical gender norms — to invasive medical exams to “prove” their gender. They even dubbed the bill the “Child Predator Empowerment Act,” claiming it would put female youth at the mercy of predatory adults under the guise of “proving” their gender.

U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said the bill was an example of Republicans’ “creepy obsession with your kids’ private parts” and added that it would only serve to fuel more hatred towards transgender youth, an already underrepresented minority who face high rates of bullying and harassment, potentially leading to mental health issues and feelings of isolation or depression.

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“This doesn’t protect a girl’s rights, it eliminates them,” U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) said durig debate. “It puts a target on the back of every girl, every young woman who chooses to play sports. The genital inspection of little girls is the wrong answer.”

U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) pushed back against assertions that the bill would require athletes to be subjected to invasive interrogations or physical exams, saying schools would simply rely on a student’s birth certificate to confirm whether they were or weren’t assigned female at birth. He claimed that Democrats do not realize that “the American people, parents, grandparents, teachers, don’t stand with them” when it comes to allowing transgender students to participate on teams matching their gender identity.

Other Democrats countered that Republicans were conflating the issue of transgender competitors in elite-level sports with instances in which elementary-aged transgender children — who have not yet undergone male puberty and gained a physiological advantage over cisgender female peers — simply want to be included in activities with their friends.

LGBTQ organizations condemned the bill as a discriminatory attack on transgender women and girls.

“Every child deserves a quality education, including the ability to participate in athletic programs. This bill is not motivated out of concern for women and girls in athletics, but animus toward a small group of vulnerable students,” Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the executive director of Advocates for Trans Equality, said in a statement. 

“We know that school policy, whether made at the local, state, or national level, has profound impacts on bullying and harassment of LGBTQI+ students. If this bill is signed into law, it makes every school less safe for transgender students and their peers,” Heng-Lehtinen added. “…It is not the government’s role to replace parents and intervene in the lives of our young people. They should be instead focused on ensuring that every student, no matter who they are or where they live, can be safe and respected at school. “

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The approval of the sports ban comes shortly after Speaker Mike Johnson imposed a policy barring transgender individuals from restrooms and other intimate facilities within the U.S. Capitol complex that do not match their assigned sex at birth.

The bathroom ban was proposed by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) in response to the election of U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first transgender member of Congress. Mace has since introduced a bill to expand those restrictions by banning transgender individuals from using gender-affirming restrooms on all federal properties.