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A Texas law banning transgender student athletes from participating in school sports teams matched to their gender identity will be passed, after approval by a House Committee, throughout the Texas home on Wednesday, where it is likely to be passed.
After more than eight hours of emotional testimony, the House of Representatives Special Committee on Constitutional Rights and Remedies voted 8 to 4 along the party lines to advance House Law 25 in public schools to playing in sports teams that match the gender on their birth certificate is stated at the time or shortly before the birth.
Attempts by the legislature to enshrine such restrictions in law have failed three times this year. But Wednesday’s committee vote helped the law clear an important hurdle that increases the likelihood of becoming law this time around.
Republican lawmakers have portrayed the legislation as a way to protect the rights of cis women under Title IX, a federal law that limits gender discrimination in educational institutions. Proponents of HB 25 have claimed that transgender girls’ participation in teams composed mostly of cisgender girls creates a safety risk for cisgender girls and prevents them from receiving athletic scholarships. Medical professionals have largely discounted the argument that transgender athletes who take hormones have an advantage. One study showed that people who took hormones did not have a significant performance advantage in long distance running.
“Our constituents expect us to see problems coming, and not wait for it to collapse and try to fix it,” Swanson said. “We don’t have to wait until there’s a big problem in Texas.”
Democrats and other opponents of the law asked what problem lawmakers are trying to solve, pointing out how bills against transgender children are hurting the mental health of children at risk. Numerous parents of transgender youth testified before the House Committee Wednesday, including Amber Briggle, mother of a 13-year-old transgender boy. Briggle said she was “crazy as hell” for having to appear before lawmakers again to fight a law targeting her child.
“He’s 13 years old so he shouldn’t have to put up with that,” Briggle said. “I want him to go to gymnastics. I want to visit Taekwondo. I want him to do well in school and I don’t want him to worry about it because I saw how bad it hurt him in April and May. “
Aaron Richie, father of two transgender teenagers, said his children feared the beginning of legislatures “in anticipation of the bills that will debate what rights and options they should have.”
The University Interscholastic League, which regulates public school sports in Texas, already requires that an athlete’s gender be determined by their birth certificate. (Two private schools are also part of the UIL, according to the UIL’s deputy director Jamey Harrison.) However, the UIL also accepts legally amended birth certificates, where the gender of students may have been officially changed to match their gender identity.
“We’re just strictly codifying the UIL rules,” Swanson said while introducing HB 25 to the House of Representatives.
However, should HB 25 become law, this would no longer allow legally changed birth certificates to be accepted. In a statement, UIL spokeswoman Julia Atkins said the process of verifying students’ birth certificates will be left to the schools, not the UIL.
Leal Anderson, the sports director for the Austin Independent School District, said in an interview that he had no information on cases in his district of a transgender student playing on a team that matches their gender identity.
“Normally I would say that [birth certificates are] checked, but then checked again if there is a question, but in most cases there is no question of the identity of the person’s gender, “Anderson said.
Opponents of the bill have stated that it is addressing an issue that does not currently exist.
Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, criticized the bill, saying that no study had been conducted to allow lawmakers to conduct a fuller study of transgender student athletes in Texas.
“I just want to make sure we’ve done enough. I don’t want children to be demonized, ”she said. “These children have seen a lot. The parents were here several times during the session and have been through a lot. I am a parent and at some point you feel like you are tired of your kids being chosen [on]. “
State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, discussed a possible change that would require a deeper look at the participation of transgender students in school sports. That possible change could come if the bill reaches the entire House.
Support for transgender athlete laws in the US varies by party line According to the Public Religion Research Institute, approximately 62% of Democrats and 9% of Republicans “approve or favor” transgender girls who play on sports teams with cisgender girls. This year, at least five states passed laws that would restrict transgender athletes from participating in sports.
During several legislative sessions this year, the Texas legislature has tabled other bills targeting transgender youth, such as laws restricting gender-based childcare and classifying childcare as child abuse.
The bill presented on Wednesday is similar to Senate Act No. 3, which was passed in the Senate. But the Upper Chamber’s bill has been assigned to the House of Representatives Public Education Committee, where lawmakers have yet to hold a hearing on the bill.
During the regular legislature, this education committee passed laws aimed at the participation of transgender youth in sport, but died in plenary after missing an important deadline. In a special session that followed, a Democratic strike prevented the House of Representatives from passing laws at all. And during the second special session, State Representative Harold Dutton, D-Houston, chairman of the House Public Education Committee, prevented legislation from entering the House Chamber.
HB 25, which was proposed by the Special Committee on Constitutional Rights and Remedies, now goes to the plenary chamber. House spokesman Dade Phelan said the House would have enough votes to pass the bill. More than half of the House of Representatives have signed up to co-draft similar laws introduced in previous sessions. If the bill passes the lower chamber, it will be passed on to the Senate, which will likely approve it.
In previous statements, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that he will keep pushing for transgender sports law until it becomes law.
The introduction of such laws has taken a mental toll on transgender youth and their families. Between January 1 and August 30, The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth, claims it received nearly 11,000 crisis contacts from LGBTQ Texans, a 150% increase over the same period last year. According to the Organization’s 2021 National LGBTQ Youth Mental Health Survey, more than half of transgender and non-binary adolescents have “thought seriously about suicide in the last year, and one in five attempted suicide”.
Business leaders also criticize anti-LGBTQ legislation. Texas AFL-CIO’s Legislative Director René Lara testified against HB 25, saying lawmakers are not prioritizing more important matters like complaints about labor shortages due to the pandemic.
Texas Competes, a coalition of nearly 1,500 business organizations, re-released an open letter this week saying it violates laws targeting the LGBTQ community. About 70 major employers signed the letter, including Amazon, Dell Technologies, and Microsoft.
Jessica Shortall, executive director of Texas Competes, said some companies are concerned that legislation against LGBTQ Texans is making the state unwelcome to potential residents.
“We have people who really care about young talent – millennial and zoomer talent – the [are] overwhelmingly supportive, even more so than their older counterparts, from LGBTQ people, ”Shortall said in an interview.
A handful of transgender children also testified Wednesday, with some commenting on how they missed school to travel to the Capitol. Maya Stanton, a 10-year-old transgender girl, said she quit gymnastics after learning that a local sports association would not allow her to compete with cisgender girls. Maya is currently on a coed swim team, but she said she still wished she had the chance to do gymnastics on the team of her choice.
“I have a trampoline in my yard and I still do gymnastics and practice my skills every day,” Maya said. “I wish I could do it with a team instead of myself. I deserve to be able to exercise but when I had to play [on] I would give up a boys team. “
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This article originally appeared in the Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/06/texas-transgender-sports-bill-legislature/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, non-partisan newsroom that educates and engages Texans about state politics and politics. Learn more at texastribune.org.
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