A bill preventing transgender women from competing in female sports at schools across the country narrowly cleared the House of Representatives Tuesday.
Just two Democrats joined with 216 Republicans in voting for the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which states that schools receiving federal funds would violate the law if they “permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls.”
All 206 “nay” votes came from Democrats. Rep. Don Davis (D-NC) voted “present” while a pair of Texans, Henry Cuellar and Vincente Gonzalez bucked party lines to back the bill.
“Common sense is back in charge,” the bill’s co-sponsor, Rep Greg Steube (R-Fla.) declared on X ahead of its passage. “With a soon-to-be Republican trifecta, my bill reflects a mandate from the American people: no men in women’s sports.”
Manhattan Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and other Dems denounced the measure as a “cruel attack on transgender children” — with Nadler even suggesting that the measure could allow authorities to subject biological women to “genital examination.”
The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, like other legislation the House has taken up early in the 119th Congress, was approved along party lines by the lower chamber in the 118th Congress, only to languish in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
The GOP is hopeful that the measure will pass the Republican-controlled Senate and head to President-elect Donald Trump’s desk after he takes office next week. However, the bill requires 60 votes to clear a filibuster.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a former college football coach, has introduced a Senate version of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act that is co-sponsored by almost three dozen of his GOP colleagues.
Tuesday’s vote comes five days after a judge nixed the Biden administration’s attempt to expand Title IX rules to include transgender and gay people to classes protected from sex discrimination in public education.
President Biden’s administration attempted to broaden the interpretation of “sex” to encompass “gender identities,” a move that conservative critics contended would have stymied efforts to safeguard women’s sports and other all-female spaces.
The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act amends Title IX to ensure that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
It further clarifies that sex will be “recognized based solely” on one’s genetics at birth and reproductive biology.
A key provision of the bill underscores that recipients of federal funds are allowed to have males train with women provided that “no female is deprived of a roster spot on a team” or scholarship opportunities.
Roughly 3% of high school students in the US classify themselves as transgender, per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At least half of states across the country have pursued similar restrictions on transgender women competing in female sports, according to research from the Movement Advancement Project.
Transgender rights had been a hot topic in the 2024 election cycle, with some Democrats identifying it as a factor in their lackluster showing.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), for instance, caused a stir by suggesting that he didn’t want his two daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.”
Moulton voted against the bill Tuesday, telling Politico it was “not the sort of balanced, fairness-oriented policy I’ve advocated for, and I won’t vote yes on this bill just because it is the first option that comes to the floor.”
Trump has previously indicated he would back restrictions intended to safeguard female athletics.
Late last year, lawmakers in the House bickered over whether or not transgender women could enter female-only facilities such as restrooms and locker rooms.
The row erupted in response to the election of Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly transgender person to serve in the lower chamber. Republicans such as Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) railed against the possibility that McBride would use a woman’s bathroom.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) later announced a policy mandating that women’s restrooms be reserved for biological women at the Capitol complex.
