Less than 48 hours from the end of session, previously dead legislation in Florida to ban transgender athletes from youth sport resurfaced as an amendment on a charter school bill, blindsiding many lawmakers and advocates, myself included.
As someone who studied sports politics and has grown up in the shadow of Florida’s legislative process, I’m deeply disappointed in the Florida Legislature for hastily passing this legislation and sending it to the governor’s desk.
In 2013, the Florida High School Athletics Association developed a process to review transgender students’ requests to play on teams that match their gender identity. Since then, only 11 transgender students have petitioned the FHSAA to play. Nevertheless, the Legislature dedicated significant time to eviscerating that policy and replacing it with a blanket ban. That is time and resources that could have been used to focus on unemployment, health care or the housing crisis in a pandemic.
