The Senate Education Committee advances a bill that would ban persons born male from competing in women’s sports. Franklinton Republican Senator Beth Mizell brought the bill again this year, after it reached final passage but was vetoed by Governor Edwards. During discussion, Monroe Democrat Senator Katrina Jackson says she understands the bill’s intent to head off potential problems with unfairness for female athletes, “..and that’s really the heart of the matter of this bill. Not whether or not you believe that people have the right to be transgender or not; but whether or not – physically – does it knock someone who is a female out of their ranking.”
Last month, the world saw transgender swimmer Lia Thomas win over biological female competitors by wide margins. Speaking against Senate Bill 44, Forum for Equality executive director Sarah Jane Guidry says the bill is too far-reaching, with unintended & prejudicial consequences for young transgenders, “SB44 would mean that 3rd grader, a 7th grader… somebody who doesn’t participate at the collegiate level … would not be able to play sports.”
The bill would define in statutes that boys’ teams are made of biological males, girls’ teams are made of biological females and prohibits person born one gender from competing with the other. Dubbed the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act”, sponsor Beth Mizell says the bill is protect for which women have worked for generations, “Over 80-percent of citizens throughout Louisiana support fairness in women’s sports. meaning biological females competing with biological females.”
But Guidry says the bill is (as Governor Edwards called it last year at his veto) a solution looking for a problem, “SB44 does not seek to answer a problem. It is not solving an issue. It is providing lip service.”
The committee passed the bill without objection, and it nowgoes to the Senate floor for debate. Last year, lawmakers sought to override the governor’s veto of the same bill, but the override fell short of votes in the House.
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