Ron Johnson reintroduces bill to ban transgender student athletes in school sports

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson has once again signed a Republican bill that would ban transgender students from competing on sports teams that do not match their sex at birth.

Senate Democrats blocked the bill last year. But with Republicans controlling Congress and the White House, LGBTQ+ advocacy groups are bracing for another fight in the battle for transgender rights.

Johnson is among 28 Republican senators reintroducing the “Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act,” which would amend Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in K-12 schools and colleges. 12th grade receiving federal funds.

In a statementJohnson’s office said the bill was a response to Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration taking “a sledgehammer to Title IX.”

Johnson’s office said the Republican bill, introduced Tuesday, would treat students’ gender as “recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology, genetics and birth.” The legislation would also prohibit schools receiving federal funding from having sports programs “allowing a man to participate in a women’s sporting event.”

This refers to the U.S. Department of Education updating Title IX rules in April 2024 to include gender identity and sexual presentation in the definition of sex discrimination. The revision did not include language relating to student athletics.

The Biden administration proposed a rule change it would have allowed schools to limit transgender students’ participation in school sports, while making blanket bans on transgender athletes a violation of Title IX. The proposed rule was scrapped on December 20.

Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment from WPR for this story.

Johnson and the 28 other Republican senators introduced for the first time the bill in March 2023, but Democrats who then held the majority in the Senate referred it to a committee where the bill died at the end of the 118th Congress.

LGBTQ+ advocates say targeting trans students is about politics, not protecting girls

Abigail Swetz is the executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Fair Wisconsin. She said WPR Johnson’s bill and political attack ads targeting trans students were not about protecting women, but rather about scoring political points.

“These are politicians using a very small percentage of the population in a really crude game,” Swetz said. “And I just think the idea of ​​using someone’s desire to belong as a reason to force them not to belong is really dangerous.”

Brian Juchems is senior director of policy and education at GSAFE, another LGBTQ+ youth advocacy group. He said schools and the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association have already spoken out on the issue of transgender athletes.

“They’ve been dealing with this for years, and this seems to be an example of Johnson wanting big government to be very involved in local control issues,” Juchems said.

Political battle leads to litigation and school divisions

For years, the issue of transgender children and student athletes has become a political lightning rod. It was a major part of Republican campaign ads during the presidential and congressional elections leading up to the November elections.

At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last summer, Johnson referenced transgender student athletes when he accused Democrats of promoting a “fringe agenda,” he called it a “clear and present danger to America.”

As of 2020, an ESPN review revealed 23 states have passed laws restricting transgender athletes to play on sports teams that match their gender identity.

Last year, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a bill Republican state lawmakers who reportedly banned students born biologically male from playing on girls’ K-12 sports teams and accused Republicans of perpetuating “hateful and discriminatory rhetoric.” In response, Rep. Barb Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc, I called him a “misogynistic veto” and claimed Evers “once again stands AGAINST women.”

Biden’s changes to Title IX were set to take effect in August 2024, but a federal judge in Kansas issued an injunctionwhich applied to Kansas, Alaska and Wyoming, as well as schools attended by members of conservative groups suing to block Biden’s revision.

Several Wisconsin school boards, including Kettle Moraine, Merton, Elmbrook, Menomonee Falls and Winneconne decided to delay passing federal Title IX amendments or excluding language on gender identity amid federal injunction. As a result, GSAFE and Fair Wisconsin have filed at least five federal Title IX complaints against Wisconsin schools.

The Wisconsin Board of Regents suspension of work to update Title IX rules last year due to the federal injunction.