RALEIGH — Transgender girls would be barred from participating in sports that conform to their gender identity, according to a bill introduced Tuesday in the North Carolina Senate.
The proposal is among the first to move through the committee after Republicans returned from spring break this week with new veto-safe margins — made possible by Mecklenburg County Rep. Tricia Cotham’s recent switch from Democrat to Republican. The win essentially eliminates the need for Republicans to bring in a Democrat to override a veto by Gov. Roy Cooper and gives them a clear path to other similar LGBTQ+ restrictions passed by other states that have previously passed had not gained importance in North Carolina.
The Senate Education Committee on Tuesday introduced a bill that would name middle and high school sports by biological sex, which is determined by “reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” While sponsors promoted the law as a necessary precaution to protect the physical safety and emotional well-being of cisgender girls, they had no explanation for how it would be enforced.
The proposed ban, similar to what has been approved in at least 20 states, now goes to the rules committee and could go to the Senate for a vote as early as Thursday. An accompanying bill in the House of Representatives will be debated in committee on Wednesday morning.
Republicans have tabled a spate of other bills targeting transgender North Carolinas since winning a supermajority earlier this month, including restrictions on gender-affirming medical procedures for trans youth and criminal penalties for public drag performances.
The Drag Bill, filed on Tuesday, would group some “male or female impersonators” with exotic dancers and strippers under state law and ban them from performing on public property or in the presence of minors. Performers could face felony charges after the first offense.
LGBTQ+ rights advocates say these GOP-backed bills and hundreds more across the US are anti-trans attacks masquerading as child protection and using trans people as political pawns to target GOP voters ahead of an election year to mobilize.
But Senator Vickie Sawyer, an Iredell County Republican and major sponsor of the sports bill, claims it is not anti-transgender, but rather pro-women. She and other supporters shared stories about their own high school athletic career, pointing to “biological downsides” like menstrual cramps that they say trans women don’t struggle with.
State superintendent for public education Catherine Truitt, a Republican, said the participation of a trans girl would “inherently disadvantage” female athletes like her two daughters. Trans girls, she said, could take away scholarships or spots on a team that Truitt said should be reserved for cisgender girls.
“If we really want to maintain a level playing field in women’s sport, biological sex has to replace gender preference,” she said.
dr CK Raynes Wilder, a North Carolina physician, said excluding transgender people would not inherently protect cisgender athletes from injury and would further isolate a small group of students already at risk of bullying and mental health issues.
This year, no more than 15 transgender athletes have entered high school athletics in the state.
“There is no real evidence to support the claim that participation by transgender athletes would reduce or impede participation in girls’ sports,” Wilder said. “On the other hand, there is strong evidence that sport is an important childhood experience for all children.”
Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, a Wake County Democrat, compared the proposal to a notorious 2016 law that restricted transgender people’s access to public restrooms and prevented cities from passing new antidiscrimination ordinances. That law, widely credited as the blueprint for the current wave of laws targeting transgender people statewide, was eventually reversed after North Carolina suffered significant economic setbacks.
Chaudhuri warned of increased suicide rates among trans children and urged lawmakers to prevent North Carolina from becoming as restrictive as Texas and Florida.
“This bill acts out of fear – 15 of them are to be targeted,” Chaudhuri said. “To be clear, I think it harms our most vulnerable children.”
___
Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that brings journalists into local newsrooms to cover undercover topics.
VIDEO: Transgender people can correct gender on North Carolina birth certificates
©2023 Cox Media Group
Comments are closed.