A bill that bans transgender girls from playing on a girls team or sport received initial approval Tuesday after the Indiana Senate voted against three amendments to the bill.
House Bill 1041, which bans transgender girls from girls teams or sports in K-12 public schools, passed on second reading. The bill, authored by Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, will be voted on at an upcoming Senate session for final approval.
Davis has said the bill’s purpose is to “maintain fair competition in girls’ sports.”
Sen. J.D. Ford, D-Indianapolis, proposed three amendments to the bill, two of which he proposed in committee. Ford said the bill has been through hours of testimony while in committee, with the majority of people opposing the bill.
“These kids just want to play soccer. That’s it. That’s all they want to do. There’s no harm in that,” Ford said.
Ford said “the core” of why the bill is being proposed is because it’s an election year.
“But, if we pass this bill, what we’re saying is that we are not all God’s children,” Ford said.
The new amendment proposed creating a transgender student athlete scholarship fund.
In committee, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana stated that it would file a lawsuit against the state, Ford said. Representatives for Attorney General Todd Rokita have stated the office will defend the state in the lawsuit, he said.
“Once again, that would put us in the national news and, obviously, that would waste our taxpayer dollars,” Ford said.
Given that information, Ford said, “all of the money that the attorney general is going to waste defending this” would be matched and put in the fund.
The amendment states the funds would come from “money transferred to the fund by the office of the attorney general” and from donations and gifts.
The amendment failed 11-37.
Ford also presented the Senate with an amendment for the Indiana High School Athletic Association to create rules and policies for transgender athletes.
In committee, Ford said the senators were told the IHSAA already has a policy for transgender athletes. Only one occurrence of a transgender girl playing on a girls team or sport has been reported in Indiana and the situation was handled locally, he said.
“What this bill says is that we know more than the IHSAA, and this amendment says to let these professionals have the space and grace to set this policy,” Ford said.
The amendment failed 13-35.
The final amendment Ford proposed would’ve sent the bill to a summer study committee to be reviewed further by the legislature.
Ford called this his “last ditch, Hail Mary option” to block the bill.
“I can assure you that adopting this type of policy for our state is sending the wrong message to Hoosiers. What it’s doing is it’s saying that you do not belong here,” Ford said. “Senators, these are kids that we are actively attacking.”
Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, said he struggles with the legislature’s “continuous push for legislation that will divide us.”
The amendment to move the bill to a summer study committee would allow the legislature to “take a pause” and review the issue, Taylor said.
“We take the time, in this body. We are deliberate. We try to put forth the effort to study issues, to find out if these things are really something that we should address,” Taylor said. “We’re talking about children.”
Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, said the study committee amendment is important and should pass. The legislature has “a misunderstanding of what it means to be transgender,” he said, so the bill shouldn’t be rushed through.
“Rather than rush in, react with our emotions, react with all the political pressure maybe that we’re receiving on this whole issue, react with our gut feelings about what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s nature and what’s not nature, let’s study what we don’t understand,” Lanane said.
The amendment failed 16-33. The bill will be considered for a final vote in the coming days.
———
