Congress Tries for Nationwide Ban on Trans Athletes
Following through on their promise to make transphobia the number one focus of legislation moving forward, one of the chambers of Congress has passed a bill that would remove federal protections against discrimination for trans students.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
Toss another log onto the cultural war bonfire, because the Republican controlled House of Representatives just passed the deceptively named “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” an act that would strip Title IX protection from transgender students. Hey, you ever wonder why some of the people you argue with on the internet seem dead set to misinterpret what you’re saying at every single turn? It’s probably because, among Americans, one in five of them is functionally illiterate! But thank goodness we’ve got the GOP ready and willing to combat the nation’s most pressing problem in education: trans student athletes.
Never mind that, according to a 2017 Human Rights Campaign study, only 14% of nonbinary kids and transgender boys, and 12% of transgender girls, play on a school sports team in America. Or NCAA President Charlie Baker’s statement to a Senate panel in December that, to his knowledge, there are fewer than 10 transgender student athletes in collegiate sports, compared to 510,000 cisgender student athletes.
House Republicans truly are on the ball.
If you aren’t familiar with Title IX (even though we’ve had to talk about it with some regularity over the last few years), it’s officially Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, enforced by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Title IX is meant to protect students from discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program that receives federal financial assistance, stating: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Whether or not Title IX protections should extend to transgender students has been part of the conservative culture war raged against trans people for years now, particularly to vile bottle blonde hatemonger Riley Gaines, who won’t stop talking about it because it’s how she makes her money.
In 2016, the Obama administration publicly endorsed protecting transgender students under the scope of Title IX laws. Less than a year later, the first Trump administration disavowed that endorsement, claiming that the Obama administration failed to provide a valid explanation for why Title IX protections should include transgender students. Throughout Biden’s presidency, his administration repeatedly promised to address Title IX coverage for trans students, but delayed any meaningful progress until 2024… when they proposed rules that would protect LGBTQ+ students without covering transgender athletes, promising a ruling on that issue at a later date. When Biden’s Title IX proposals faced litigatory pushback, he abandoned transgender students entirely.
What a surprise!
Those of us who report on these issues have been watching, for years now, as a shockingly small number of students and student athletes are targeted without mercy or compassion by vitriolic politicians hoping only to score reelections by remorselessly abusing marginalized children. More than half of the country has already banned trans kids from participating in sports, which are an inarguable human right, and the House (including three Democrats; Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez who voted for the bill, and Don Davis who voted present) has joyfully voted to make those bans federal.
The bill will head to the Senate and, if it passes there, newly reelected President Trump’s desk, where he will undoubtedly sign it. It’s unclear if the GOP’s slim majority in the Senate will guarantee their success. At this point, all we can do is call our senators and hope.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a professional writer who spends too much time playing video games!
