A step toward fairness or a discriminatory step back? TX considers bill on trans athletes

A Texas Senate committee late Monday considered a bill that would bar transgender college athletes from competing on sports teams aligning with their gender identity.

The bill, laid out in the Senate State Affairs Committee Monday evening, says public colleges and universities must require athletes to participate on intercollegiate teams that align with their sex assigned at birth, rather than the team aligning with the student’s gender identity. Female athletes would be able to play men’s sports if there wasn’t a corresponding sport offered for women.

“Senate Bill 15 comes down to one thing: Fairness,” said Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican, the bill’s author. “Fairness is something that generations of women have fought for, which is the opportunity to compete in college sports.”

Advocates for the bill told lawmakers men have athletic advantages over women, and it’s unfair for transgender women to compete in women’s sports. But opponents said the legislation is discriminatory toward transgender Texans.

“This bill has nothing to do with fairness,” said Jennifer Cárranza, who testified against the bill. “This bill has everything to do with prejudice.”

Some opponents also questioned why the Legislature was spending time on the issue when there are other matters to take up.

“It’s immensely cruel to pass a law solely to target such a tiny number” of students, said Brian Kolsterboer, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Texas.

Lawmakers did not vote on the bill in committee when testimony ended around 9 p.m. Middleton told senators earlier in the hearing he had a substitution for the bill that didn’t make major changes, but that version wasn’t available online Monday night.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has made the policy one of his one of his top priorities for the legislative session. Like Swanson, the House version’s author, Patrick addressed attendees of a rally outside the Capitol hosted by conservative group Texas Values for its Texas Faith and Family Day.

“We will get it done,” Patrick said, vowing that the legislation to “save women’s sports in college” would pass out of committee.

Also speaking at the event was Riley Gaines, who swam at the University of Kentucky. Gaines has been outspoken in her opposition of transgender women competing on women’s sports teams. She tied with Lia Thomas, who is transgender, for fifth place in the 200 freestyle during NCAA Division I Women’s Championships.

Gaines raised concerns with transgender women in common dressing areas and unfair competition, and said she’s confident she’s speaking on behalf of others who share her views.

Gaines met with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday and later spoke before lawmakers as part of an panel of female athletes who were invited to testify during the bill’s committee hearing.

“Of course Title IX was enacted to end discrimination on the basis of sex within colleges and universities,” Gaines said. “But by allowing Thomas to displace female athletes on the pool and on the podium, the NCAA intentionally and explicitly discriminated on the basis of sex.”

Lawmakers passed a similar law when they were last in Austin, putting the rule in place for public grade schools in the state. UIL rules already were based sex on a student’s birth certificate but changes to the document were accepted. The 2021 bill went further by requiring gender be based on what a student’s birth certificate said “at or near” time of birth.

“This time we have come back to finish the job,” said Rep. Valoree Swanson, a Spring Republican who is carrying a similar bill House during the Monday rally.

Ash Hall, ACLU of Texas’ policy and advocacy strategist on LGBTQ rights, said discussions from the 2021 session related to bills like the one discussed Monday negatively impact the well being of LGBTQ Texans, citing information from The Trevor Project. The organization found that 86% of LGBTQ youth surveyed reported being negatively impacted by recent politics sometimes or a lot of the time.

“It is disappointing to me that you use that power, that privileged, that gift, to perpetuate hate and heighten the levels of discrimination and outright violence that transgender children and adults like myself face daily,” said Adri Perez, who spoke against the bill.

There have been 137 anti-LGBTQ bills filed this legislative session, according to Equality Texas’ Legislative Bill Tracker; 135 bills have been filed supporting LGBTQ Texans.

Among the bills are proposals to restrict access to gender affirming healthcare for transgender kids, including Senate Bill 14, which is scheduled for a Thursday committee hearing.

Jennifer Evans of Denton County was among those who support the legislation related to transgender college athletes.

“The impact of allowing this could be my daughters and females across the country potentially losing out on awards and scholarships,” Evans said. “How would our daughters ever stand a chance against the advantage males have over females?”

Ahead of public testimony on the proposal, Sen. José Menéndez, a San Antonio Democrat, expressed concern that passing the bill in the law could lead to the NCAA pulling athletic championships out of the state. Middleton , the bill author, said other states haven’t faced such retaliation.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.