Ohio lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday that would ban transgender women from participating in high school and college sports. The bill provides a “vetting” process for transgender athletes who want to play sports.
The Billknown as the “Save Women’s Sports Act”, states that no governmental agency or political subdivision of a state or athletic association may review a complaint, initiate an investigation, or take any other action against a school district for “maintaining single-sex interscholastic sports teams or sports.” “
Additionally, if an athlete’s gender is “questioned,” he or she must provide documentation from a doctor to be allowed to play a sport consistent with his or her biological sex.
(B) No school, interscholastic conference, or organization regulating interscholastic athletics shall permit male participants to participate on track teams or in track and field events designated exclusively for female participants.
(C) If a participant’s gender is in question, the participant will determine the participant’s gender by providing a signed declaration from a physician indicating the participant’s gender based solely on:
(1) Participant’s internal and external reproductive anatomy;
(2) Normal, endogenously produced testosterone levels in the participant;
(3) Analysis of the participant’s genetic structure.
Jena Powell, a member of the Republican Party in the Ohio House of Representatives, told the local website News 5 Cleveland that female athletes lose championships to biological male athletes competing as women. Townhall recounted how transgender swimmer Will “Lia” Thomas won the Division I title at the NCAA Swimming Championships in March, competing against women at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas is a biological male and competed on the men’s team for three years.
“I am passionate about this issue because we cannot allow girls’ dreams of winning a gold medal in track and field to be dashed by biological males stealing their opportunities,” Powell said. “This bill ensures that every little girl who works hard to get on the podium will not be robbed of her opportunity by a biological male competing against her in a biological female sport.”
