In NC and in Congress, Republicans advance bans on trans athletes in women’s sports
One day after the North Carolina House passed a ban on transgender females playing on women’s and girls’ sports teams, the state Senate passed its own slightly different version of the legislation.
The House version of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act would prohibit “students of the male sex” from playing on female athletic teams in middle school, high school and college, and was approved by House members on Wednesday in a mostly party-line vote with three Democrats joining Republicans in voting for the bill. The Senate version applies only to middle schools and high schools.
The Senate approved its version Thursday along party lines in a 29-18 vote.
Republicans are also moving forward with similar legislation at the federal level. The U.S. House on Thursday morning passed a bill that would amend Title IX to prevent federal funding from going to institutions at all levels of education that allow transgender girls and women from competing in female athletics and events.
NC bill moves quickly
In North Carolina, lawmakers moved quickly after returning from a break to advance both bills to the floor, with the House bill clearing two committees on Wednesday ahead of a floor vote in the afternoon.
During debate on the Senate floor Thursday, Republicans said that the bill’s purpose was simple: to protect opportunities for female athletes and make sure that they don’t have to compete with athletes who might have a competitive advantage over them.
Sen. Kevin Corbin, who represents Cherokee County, where a high school senior was injured during a volleyball game in September after being hit in the face by a ball spiked by a transgender athlete, said that he and other bill sponsors wanted to make sure that fair competition is maintained.
Ahead of the vote, opponents of the legislation from the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality NC rallied across from the General Assembly.
“This is an issue that not only impacts our trans kids, it impacts all of our communities,” said Eliazar Posada, the organizing director at Equality NC. “So, today we’re here again, showing that no matter how quick they want to rush these legislations, no matter how fast they want to undermine our rights, we’re going to show up every single time.”
After the demonstration, the group walked into the Legislative Building carrying signs that said “Protect LGBTQ Youth,” and planned to watch the Senate’s debate of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act from the chamber’s gallery.
Since the two bills are different, the House and Senate will need to negotiate what the final bill look like before it can move forward and be sent to Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk.
Trans sports legislation also advances in Congress
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said in a news conference following the vote in Washington on Thursday that passing H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, lines up with a promise Republicans made for what they would do if they were able to take back the majority in last year’s elections.
The bill passed 219-203 along party lines, and Republicans immediately took to social media celebrating their win.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, said the win was not hers, despite being the one to champion the bill through committees and the House floor.
“Women and girls won today,” Foxx tweeted.
Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican from Charlotte, followed immediately with his own tweet: “Female athletes shouldn’t be forced to compete against male athletes. Women shouldn’t be forced to share locker rooms and changing spaces with men. It’s just common sense.”
McCarthy and Foxx joined three female athletes outside the Capitol after the votes and had them tell their stories to a crowd of reporters.
“I worked my entire life to become an NCAA athlete,” said Macy Petty of Rock Hill, South Carolina. “I was that girl in high school who never got to go to prom, who never got to go on these fancy vacations, because I spent my weekends on the volleyball court.”
She said she traveled to various club tournaments trying to be recruited and realize her dream of playing NCAA volleyball. She now plays for Lee University in Tennessee.
“Now, for the sake of including those who cannot follow the most basic and fundamental rules that girls’ sports are for girls only,” Petty said, “female athletes who sacrificed so much for their sport are being pushed out of athletics.”
Petty described the possibility of a man used to competing with a net seven inches higher than hers, and who is “mediocre” compared to other men, slamming a volleyball into her face.
“American women and girls deserve better than what Democrats are doing to them,” Foxx said. “They deserve not to live in fear of losing a scholarship because a biological male caused them to lose it. They deserve not to live in fear of losing their spot on the roster. They deserve not to live in fear of losing their spot on the podium. That’s why today is historic.”
Foxx said Thursday’s vote is the first step in strengthening Title IX protections put in place in 1972 to protect women from discrimination and exploitation.
Though the bill passed the U.S. House, it likely won’t be taken up by the Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow majority. If it does, it is highly unlikely that President Joe Biden would sign the bill into law, something that House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said would be a slap in the face to women, science and common sense.
This story was originally published April 20, 2023 at 1:20 PM.
