A Utah House Committee on Thursday moved forward with a bill that would ban transgender athletes from competing in female-only K-12 school sports.
The Preserving Sports for Female Students bill passed the local legislative body with an 8-6 vote and will advance to the state House for the next level of approval. The bill “prohibits a student of the male sex from participating in an athletic activity designated for female students” and requires educational institutions to “designate athletic activities by sex.”
“Across America, there are stories of individuals who identified as male at birth competing against our female athletes,” Republican state Rep. Kera Birkeland, a junior varsity high school basketball coach, said during deliberations. “These individuals who identify as male at birth are breaking records that no female will be able to reach. They’re taking championships, titles, and scholarships from our female athletes. To say it’s taking a toll on our female athletes would be an understatement.”
Other conservatives, such as Gayle Ruzicka, leader of the Utah Eagle Forum, echoed Birkeland’s concerns and said biological men competing in women’s athletics have an undeniable advantage of being “generally bigger, faster, stronger,” in addition to having “larger hearts and lungs, denser bones, and stronger muscles.”
Opponents of the bill accused the lawmakers of discrimination.
“It tells some children, ‘You can’t play; you don’t belong on the field,’” Troy Williams, executive director of Equality Utah, said. “That’s discrimination. So, please, let’s follow the Utah way. Let’s slow this down. Let’s collaborate together so we don’t have this big, ugly culture war.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday that transgender athletes will “ruin the opportunity for girls.” Lee’s state is in the process of forwarding a bill that would mandate school athletes prove their sex matches their birth certificate in order to compete.
“I do believe that transgenders participating in women’s sports will destroy women’s sports,” Lee said. “It will ruin the opportunity for girls to earn scholarships. It will put a glass ceiling back over women that hasn’t been there in some time. I think it’s bad for women and for women’s sports.”
Similar bills have advanced in North Dakota, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, and other states.
The flurry of legislation coincided with an executive order from President Biden, signed on his first day in office, “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation,” which includes a provision that “children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”
The Washington Examiner conducted interviews with high school athletes, many of whom feared for their future amid easing restrictions on transgender participation in sports.
“It was very frustrating and difficult knowing the outcome of the race before you even step on the line,” said Selina Soule, a Division I track athlete at the College of Charleston, as she recounted her experience of losing a competitive race to two transgender runners. “That’s not how it should be in sports. You hope to win, not already knowing the outcome before the meet even comes. It wasn’t only me who felt dispirited. Other girls felt the same.”
