Source: Win McNamee / Getty
WASHINGTON — Republicans are pushing more legislation they say will protect women when it comes to competitive sports they take part in.
The Protection of Women in Olympic & Amateur Sports Act was introduced recently by Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) and has companion legislation in the Senate introduced by Sen. Tom Tuberville (R-AL). The premise of the bill is to ban biologically male people from competing in women’s sports, with a specific focus on sports with governing bodies recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
The bill would be an essential ban on transgender athletes competing for the US in the Olympics or the World Championship in any given sport.
“It’s really not protected, these rights for women and girls to be competitive in sports,” said Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN-5th) in a House Judiciary Committee hearing looking over the bill.
The legislation is in direct response to USA Boxing issuing rules allowing transgender women to compete in the boxing ring with biological women. The new rules also state that transgender athletes must have had gender reassignment surgery and get regular testosterone testing in order to compete.
Spartz used her time in the hearing to bring up cases of what she said were men unfairly competing in women’s sports. She showed examples of viral videos when biologically born women were getting hurt by transgender athletes.
She was questioned directly by Democrats over the videos she showed. Some said they “did not understand” what the videos were showing. Spartz said the videos proved a “common sense in science” that transgender women should not be allowed to compete against biological women.
“For it’s sad to see as a mother of two girls that we are trying to put girls at a disadvantage,” Spartz said. “A lot of these girls work extremely hard in to be able to succeed in their sport. It’s very competitive.”
Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD-4th) in particular questioned Spartz saying that college athletes are “not asking for this legislation.” He also said he was “not aware” of any transgender players trying to play women’s college basketball as an example.
Riley Gains, an outspoken activist and former D1 swimmer at the University of Kentucky, has led a very public campaign on behalf of female college athletes against transgender women in women’s sports.
Spartz called it “offensive” that some legislators are fine with allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports and that allowing them to do so stomps on the rights of women to have a level playing field in sports.
The bill was approved out of the Judiciary Committee on Thursday in a party-line vote of 16-15.
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