House GOP Fast-Tracks Transgender Athlete Ban
Congressional Republicans are putting hateful transgender sports bans at the very top of their legislative list.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have adopted a new rules package that allows a proposed transgender sports ban to be fast-tracked and voted on without a chance to offer amendments.
Under the text of the rules package, 12 bills that Republican lawmakers have long prioritized — primarily having to do with immigration, anti-abortion measures, and fracking — are to be voted upon “as read.”
Among those is a measure to “amend the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with Title IX of such Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
The description of the measure appears to be a reference to a bill re-introduced by U.S. Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) known as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.”
The proposed legislation bars any entity that receives federal funding and that “operates, sponsors or facilitates an athletic program or activity” from allowing a person whose assigned sex at birth is male to participate in an activity specifically designated for females.
Male individuals may practice with a female sports team but may not participate in female-designated activities.
The bill states that “sex shall be recognized as based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” It also directs the Comptroller General to report on how allowing a transgender person to compete on female-designated sports teams would allegedly negatively impact female athletes.
A previous version of Steube’s bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2023, but failed to receive a vote in the Senate, which was controlled by Democrats at the time.
A companion bill is being introduced in the Senate by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).
Because Republicans now control that chamber, the measure is expected to pass and be signed into law by President-elect Donald Trump.
“The radical left is not in step with the American people on the issue of protecting women’s sports,” Steube said in a statement. “Americans have loudly spoken that they do not want men stealing sports records from women, entering their daughters’ locker rooms, replacing female athletes on teams, and taking their daughters’ scholarship opportunities.”
Steube’s bill is vague in how it defines sex. Additionally, the measure does not discuss how it would account for intersex individuals.
As noted by journalist Mady Castigan, intersex athletes, including those with genetic conditions like Swyer Syndrome, have historically been targeted by anti-transgender sports bans, which fail to take into account variances in naturally occurring hormonal levels, chromosomal makeup, or secondary sex traits.
Furthermore, Castigan notes, past studies have shown that transgender females on puberty blockers do not have a biological advantage over cisgender females because they have never undergone “male puberty,” and trans women who did undergo male puberty lose many of their biological advantages after two years on hormone therapy.
Castigan also points out that the measures requiring segregation by natal sex would force transgender men — who are taking testosterone for their transition and, therefore, potentially enjoy an unfair advantage over other athletes — to compete against women.
“Trans sports bans unequivocally have no moral or scientific justification and do not protect women — cis or trans,” Castigan writes on her Substack. “If Republicans truly care about protecting women’s sports, they should focus their energy on far more salient and widespread issues such as rampant sexual harassment and misogyny against athletes participating in women’s sports.”
Congressional Republicans are also pushing a rule to ban transgender individuals from using restrooms that align with their gender identity. Slipped into the January 3 edition of the Congressional Record is a policy that mandates that any single-sex facilities at the U.S. Capitol complex must be based on “biological sex,” although that term is not explicitly defined.
While the rule was not included in the rules package approved by lawmakers last week, it is valid under authority granted to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) under House rules, which give him “general control” over House-controlled facilities.
The ban will be enforced by the House Sergeant-at-Arms, but it is unclear how the sergeant-at-arms will ensure that only people assigned female at birth — as some transgender individuals can “pass” as cisgender — are using single-sex facilities.
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