Pa. House passes bill banning transgender women and girls from competing in women’s sports

A bill to ban transgender females from competing in girls and women’s sports passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The legislation passed on a 115-84 bipartisan vote. It now goes to the Senate for consideration, which has a similar bill that was approved by its education committee on Monday.

However, Gov. Tom Wolf has made it clear that he will veto the bill. He has said it discriminates and his spokeswoman called it disturbing and dangerous.

“Transgender individuals should know that they belong, that they are valued and that their participation in activities is welcomed,” Wolf spokeswoman Rachel Kostelac said.

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Despite that veto threat, Rep. Barb Gleim, R-Cumberland County, the bill’s sponsor, said, “Allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports reverses nearly 50 years of hard-earned advances for women and destroys fair competition and women’s athletic opportunities.”

Her bill levels the playing field for female athletes, she said. It requires sports sponsored by a public high school or higher education institution or any school that competes against them to be designated as for biological females, biological males or co-ed.

It also provides for any student who is deprived of an athletic opportunity or suffers harm due to a violation of this legislation by a school or college the opportunity to file a lawsuit against the institution.

Gleim said her legislation doesn’t take away opportunities for transgender females to play sports but rather would only allow them to compete on co-ed teams or in men’s sports.

Rep. Valerie Gaydos, R-Allegheny County, a bill cosponsor, attributed the need for the legislation to a February 2021 executive order signed by President Joe Biden that put educational institutions’ federal funding at risk if they don’t allow biological males to participate in female sports.

She said his stated intention was to stop discrimination but it ended up attacking Title IX, which forbids sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs including athletics.

“The bottom line is allowing biological males to compete in girls and women’s sports destroys fair competition. It doesn’t create it,” Gaydos said, during the near 90-minute floor debate.

Democratic members in opposing the bill highlighted the potential negative psychological, emotional and social consequences this could have on transgender youth, who already are at higher risk for depression and suicidal ideation.

“Proposing legislation designed to further marginalize trans people rather than empower and uplift them is a shameful misuse of power and one that can have deadly consequences,” said Rep. Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia.

Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, who along with Sims is one of three openly LGBTQ members of the House, echoed that sentiment. He accused its supporters of using trans youth as “political pawns in a debate that has nothing to do with actually making their life better.”

Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny County, pointed out Republican governors in Indiana and Utah, unlike GOP peers in 11 other states, vetoed this bill when it came to their desks, saying it was unnecessary. They also questioned its constitutionality.

Rep. Mark Longietti, D-Mercer County, said determining sports eligibility rules is outside the General Assembly’s constitutional mandate and should be left to the governing bodies of high school and college sports. About that, Rep. Martina White, R-Philadelphia, one of the bill’s cosponsors, disagreed.

“This is very much in our lane,” she said. “It is the responsibility of government to address sports and equity. As a matter of fact, Title IX is just that. It is government getting involved to address an inequity.”

White went on to say science and common sense suggest biological males have a competitive advantage over females and cost them spots on a team, on a podium or in landing a scholarship. Further, she said females athletes could suffer lifelong injuries in competing against biological males.

“Having separate teams for men and women is the time-tested way to ensure women have the opportunity to showcase their talents and be champions,” she said.