A two-week break from Congress didn’t relieve any tension between political parties as Democrats accused Republicans Monday of bullying transgender youth with a bill expected to pass the House Thursday.
The bill championed by Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina aims to prevent transgender women or girls from competing on sports teams matching the gender with which they identify.
H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, would apply to schools receiving federal funding. It would block federal funding for institutions that allow males to compete in events for women and girls, with determination of sex “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
“Out of all the issues in the world, House Republicans decided that on the very first day back, our very first bill would be a trans-bullying bill,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts. “More division, more extremism, more MAGA cultural wars.”
McGovern spoke about the bill in the House Committee on Rules Monday night. Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, advocated for the bill in front of the committee and has managed the process of getting it through committees to the House floor.
“The bill says if you’re a biological male you cannot participate against biological females,” Foxx told the committee. “It is as simple as that.”
Rep. Jim McGovern shot back, “You do not believe that trans women are women?”
“They’re males,” Foxx said, lowering her voice. “Sorry. If they were born as males, they’re men. There’s no way to change your biological sex.”
Kendra Johnson, executive director of Equality NC, said there’s a difference between biological sex and gender. “Google can be your friend in this moment for you to be more astute about what is actually the difference between biology and expression,” Johnson said.
“None of these people are experts, none of these people are doctors, none of these people even believe in science and yet they have the power to make these decisions about people that they’re unwilling to sit down with and understand the realities, and that’s what’s heartbreaking.”
NC bill passes Senate committee
Answering the phone Tuesday afternoon, Johnson she said she was already heartbroken over a similar bill in North Carolina which is making its way through the state legislature and passed the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday morning.
“We know what this is,” Johnson said. “They can call it whatever they want to call it, but this is hate, plain and simple.”
The American Civil Liberties Union tracks bills the organization considers “anti-LGBTQ” and found 467 pieces of legislation, across nearly every state. Nine are from North Carolina and involve free speech, education, civil rights and health care. None of them have passed, but all of them are continuing to move through the legislative process.
In Congress, H.R. 734 is heading to a House floor debate Wednesday, and is expected to pass the House on Thursday, but likely won’t be picked up by the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority. If it were to make it past the Senate, it’s highly unlikely that President Joe Biden would sign the bill into law.
But at the state level, Republican lawmakers are using their newly acquired legislative supermajority to act on the bill to ban transgender females from playing on middle school and high school girls’ sports teams.
The “Fairness In Women’s Sports Act” says women’s teams aren’t open to “students of the male sex.” Even though the N.C. High School Athletic Association estimates there may be 15 transgender athletes out of 140,000 athletes statewide, Sen. Vickie Sawyer called it “15 wrong decisions.”
Sawyer, an Iredell County Republican, and her GOP colleagues argued that the legislation is needed to protect the safety and scholarship opportunities of female athletes playing against stronger “biological males.”
“This bill is not about being anti-trans,” Sawyer told the committee. “This bill is about being pro-woman.”
But Democratic lawmakers said the legislature should be more worried about issues such as gun violence in schools and teacher shortages.
“This bill traffics in fear,” said Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, a Wake County Democrat. “Fifteen of them to be targeted, to be clear. I think it puts our most vulnerable kids in harm.”
The legislation drew extensive public comment in Tuesday’s committee meeting.
Bill supporters argued that the legislation is needed to keep transgender athletes from dominating women’s sports.
“The only fair solution is to ensure that only biological females compete in women’s sports,” said Tami Fitzgerald, director of the NC Values Coalition. “Allowing males to compete effectively spells the end of women’s sports.”
But opponents of the legislation said that the success of transgender athletes is exaggerated.
“Trans-athletes have participated in sports since the ‘70s,” said Katie Jenifer, a North Carolina attorney and parent of a transgender child. “There’s no mass takeover of sports. It would have happened in 40 years if so.”
The Education Committee amended the bill on Tuesday to remove language in the original version that would have prevented women from playing on men’s teams, such as football and wrestling. Sawyer said female athletes understand the risks of playing on men’s teams.
The N.C. House is expected to take up its own version of the legislation on Wednesday.
Debate in Congress
In the U.S. House, the rules committee debated the bill for more than two hours Monday night, as Foxx and Rep. Mark Takano, a Democrat from California, aired their opposing views.
“It’s crucial that we ensure that female athletes are not unfairly disadvantaged by males participating against them,” Foxx said. “Female athletes have fought hard to gain recognition and respect for their achievements, and they should not be undermined by unfair advantages or discrimination, and allowing males to compete in women’s sports does just that.”
Foxx argued that men have physical advantages over women including larger muscle mass, greater bone density, more lung capacity, a larger heart size and higher levels of testosterone.
“They say our criticisms are rooted in transphobia or discrimination,” Foxx said. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. Republicans recognize the reality of biological differences between boys and girls, men and women.”
“Allowing any single girl to lose a roster spot, a place on the podium or a scholarship to a male is one too many.”
Takano, along with McGovern, said there are many other issues that Congress needs to be addressing including gun violence, which is now ranked the No. 1 killer of U.S. children.
“We know transgender students already face widespread bullying and discrimination,” Takano said “Adding to their pain by targeting their participation in school sports is both wrong and dangerous.”
He quoted Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who said he struggled to understand being transgender but when in doubt he errs on the side of “kindness, mercy and compassion.” Cox made that statement before vetoing a bill in the same vein as H.R. 734.
Takano was asked directly if it was possible to change someone’s biological sex.
“I’m not transgender, so I can’t,” he trailed off, “but I if I were to speak for them, I would say that a transgender person might say that it’s not about them changing their sex, it’s about being who they are.”
Takano also spoke about the importance of sports in a child’s life.
“School sports activities offer fundamental life lessons such as leadership, self confidence and teamwork that every child should be able to join,” Takano said. “Our efforts should concentrate on ensuring that student athletics are above all fair and safe. H.R. 734 does that exact opposite.”
