The House passed a bill Tuesday that would ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports at schools and organizations that receive federal funding.
The bill would also amend federal law to state that “gender is determined solely on the basis of a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at the time of birth,” and was approved by a vote of 218 to 206, largely along party lines. Approved.
The only two Texas Democrats to vote in favor of the bill were Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. No Republicans opposed the bill, although Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina voted present.
This bill is currently before the Senate.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), said the bill is aimed at protecting women’s sports.
“The distinction between men and women is clear, and the abolition of this distinction is being promulgated by those on the radical left who seek to dismantle the core foundations of society,” Steube said on the House floor before the vote. “We must never surrender our country and the American way of life to this immoral ideology.”
Rep. Lori Trahan (Mass.), the only female Division I college athlete in Congress, said Republicans are using the measure to “force themselves into decisions that don’t concern them.” He said there was.
“I have long trusted sports governing bodies, the professionals who have dedicated their lives to competitive sports, to create fair and responsible rules for participation,” Trahan said in remarks on the floor. said.
Trahan and other Democrats called the bill the “Child Predator Empowerment Act,” arguing it would jeopardize the safety of children in schools and could expose them to interrogation and physical searches.
The bill passed the House of Representatives without Democratic support during the last Congress in April 2023, but failed to advance in the Senate, which had a Democratic majority at the time. Republicans currently have a majority.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) last week endorsed a ban near the House chamber that would have prohibited transgender people from using the gender-segregated restrooms that correspond to their gender identity, saying that Republicans “again “I stood up for women,” she said on Tuesday.
“I’m a Bible-believing Christian and I make no apologies for that,” he said at a press conference after the vote. “But whether you consider it true or not, that’s also nature. It’s biology. ” he said.
