The State of Georgia Senate adopted legislation on Thursday prohibiting transgender girls from playing in the sports teams of girls in schools along the main party line, and the sponsor of the bill also suggested that the body would take measures to prohibit drugs in puberty.
“Recognition of female sport is important because without a border concerning female sport which excludes the male advantage, men would dominate all major sports competitions,” said the Cumming Le Républicain Greg Dolezal sponsor.
“The goal is to include women by excluding men,” he added. “This is an integral part of the simple existence of female sport.”
Bill 1 of the Senate After 35-17, with democratic senses. Freddie Powell Sims of Dawson and Ed Harbison of Columbus joining their republican colleagues in support.
In addition, the president of the Jon Burns House held a press conference on Tuesday reveal The plan of his room to ban transgender girls practicing girls sports.
Before one or the other bill can become law, he will have to pass the two chambers by early April, and Burns and Lieutenant-Governor Burt Jones will probably go to make sure that their version is that Who discovers the shift of the Bill of the Governor Brian Kempne Sin.
Jones and Burns may have had the opportunity to chop the differences during a recent trip. The two men were in Washington Wednesday as President Donald Trump sign An executive decree that also seeks to prohibit transgender girls from doing girls sports.
All the attention has not been pleasant for many Georgian Trans, who call for recent sports prohibitions and other legislative and executive actions opposite.
“I was crying most of yesterday because I discovered that the decree was going to occur around 24 hours before, and at that time, I said to myself, oh my God, between that and SB1, essentially everyone tried To keep me by playing, “said Soju Hokari, a transgender student from Emory University who plays ultimate, also known as Ultimate Frisbee, for the extended and female team of the school of the school as well as That for Atlanta Soul, a local semi-professional team.
Hokari said that under the executive order of Trump and the law of the state proposed, she could continue to play for Atlanta Soul but not in Emory. The bill would apply to interscoad teams of all levels and colleges, both public colleges and private colleges that compete with public schools.
She said that the ultimate leagues emphasize the inclusiveness between the sexes at all levels. In 2020, USA, Ultimate adopted an inclusion policy between the sexes with three divisions, men, women and mixed, but recommends that all the organizers authorize players to compete in the division with which they feel most easy.
Hokari said the bill goes beyond the decisions taken by leagues, which are closer to the specific needs of athletes than the state or federal government.
“I personally think that all trans athletes should simply be able to play, but the leagues have all these mechanisms in place to try to have a specific means of sport to ensure equity and inclusion in their sports, and the problem With the law is that he tries to replace this by being like: “in fact, we know better than these individual sports”. »»
Democrats have described the bill A solution in search of a problem, arguing that transgender people represent less than 1% of the population of the State and an even smaller subset of transgender Georgians are athlete students .
The Republicans often quote the swimmer Riley Gaines, the namesake of the Bill of the Chamber, which has become an icon of the movement against transgender participation in the sports of girls after she and other swimmers faced and shared a Cloakroom with a transgender woman during a 2022 championship held at the Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
The NCAA modified its eligibility rules after this competition following many complaints.
Stone Mountain’s Democratic Senator Kim Jackson offered an amendment which, she said, would have addressed problems that are more likely to prevent girls from playing sports than transgender competitors. The bill called for measures such as the equalization of wages for coaches and requiring equal access to fields and equipment for teams for girls and boys.
In a debate on the ground, the Democrats have declared that the bill could lead to challenges on the female athletes Cisgenres which may not seem conventionally female, or that it may require transgender boys, which may seem male and Have larger muscles because of testosterone injections, to play on girls’ teams.
“So, a trans trans will now compete in the sports of girls?” asked the Demannah Derek Mallow Democrat representative.
“A trans girl – a trans boy – a woman. Let’s take away the trans thing. Let’s talk about it in terms of biology, in terms of women, ”said Dolezal. “Women will participate in a female sport and men will participate in a male sport. I think there are other invoices which are currently aimed or discuss puberty blockers or even the injection of testosterone. »»
“This is not what the heart of this bill discusses or envisages,” he added. “I think we can see downstream changes that could even change the reality or the potential of what you are talking about.”
Savannah Ben Watson’s Republican Senator has deposited an invoice This would prohibit the use of puberty or hormone therapy blockers on minors.
Both versions of the ban specify that people assigned to birth cannot play in interscholastic teams for people assigned to birth, but girls would be allowed to play in boys teams in certain circumstances. They also specify that schools must maintain separate locker installations for sex and outline methods to complain about athletes who believe that their rights have been raped.
First -line policy, an evangelical conservative influential lobbying groupmade an extended ban on transgender sports an absolute priority. Speaking after the Burns press conference on Tuesday, the founder of Frontline and President Cole Muzio said he was neutral between the bills of the Chamber and the Senate.
“We want the girls to be protected in the state of Georgia, and I think that the room has done an excellent job with this legislation, very close to what we have pleaded,” he said. “The Senate, I know, worked hard on this, and I think there is the unit in this building between the governor’s office, the president of the room and the Senate. A good language will pass, so we are delighted to see what is going on. »»
The main journalist Stanley Dunlap contributed to this report.
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