- Kentucky Senators on Thursday passed a bill which would prohibit transgender girls from competing on school sports teams that match their gender identity.
- Under the bill, school sports teams designated as “girls” teams “shall not be open to members of the male sex.”
- A similar bill was sent to the governor’s desk in Oklahoma on Thursday and governors in Utah and Indiana vetoed bills banning transgender athlete participation earlier this week.
Senators in Kentucky on Thursday passed a bill seeking to prevent transgender girls from playing on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity, sending the legislation to the governor’s desk for final approval.
Under the bill, which similar to others like it is known as the “,” school sports teams for Kentucky students designated as “girls” teams “shall not be open to members of the male sex.”
In this case, “sex” is defined as that which is listed on the child’s original birth certificate, or their sex assigned at birth, meaning even transgender girls who have legally amended their birth certificates to accurately reflect their gender will be barred from girls’ sports teams.
Similar bans have been blocked in federal courts in Idaho and West Virginia, and a lawsuit which sought to prevent trans athletes from competing in girls’ high school sports in Connecticut was by a federal judge.
, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kentucky spokesperson Samuel Crankshaw said the bill, which is also known as Senate Bill 83, violates Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, as well as Kentucky students’ Constitutional rights to equal protection and privacy.
“Transgender students already live and go to school in Kentucky, play sports, and enjoy time with their friends. They deserve the chance to succeed and thrive like any other student,” Crankshaw said. “The adults in the General Assembly should focus on what students, teachers, and schools really need, rather than single out vulnerable children to score cheap political points.”
Others argued that the bill takes necessary action in valuing “female athletes over radical gender ideology.”
“Biology matters, especially in sports,” David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, a conservative and Christian fundamentalist lobbying group, said in a statement. “As our society increasingly ignores science and biological reality, women are paying the price. Allowing males to compete in girls’ sports reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women.”
Notably, state Senators in favor of the bill on Thursday were not able to cite any specific examples of any Kentucky students being harmed by including transgender girls in girls’ sports.
Dozens of transgender sports bans are being considered in state legislatures across the country, and 11 states already have laws in place barring trans student athletes from playing on teams which match their gender identity.
Republican governors in Utah and Indiana vetoed similar legislation earlier this week.
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