Senate Democrats were unified on Monday to block a trans sports ban. The bill, which have modified the federal law of civil rights to prohibit transgender girls’ sports girls in schools funded by the federal government, was the first test of Democrats on the question of whether they will fight against anti-trans laws Priority back Rolling Trans.
This test could not arrive at a more crucial moment for transgender Americans. About 20 federal anti-Trans bills Track of trans legislation. The ability of democrats to block these bills depends on their use of obstruction – that is to derail this legislation on trans athletes on Monday. Sixty votes are necessary to put an end to the debate in the Senate, so that the Republicans would have needed certain Democrats on board to unravel a file and adopt the bill.
No Democrat in the Senate has broken the ranks to support the bill, although two did not vote. This demonstration of support is an important moment for the Trans defenders, who watched the legislators of the Democratic State and some Democrats of the Congress responded to the re -election of President Donald Trump by suggesting that their party had gone too far support trans rights.
Caius Willingham, analyst of senior policies at Advocates for Trans Equality, credited the unified voting of democrats on Monday to a concerted effort of LGBTQ + advocacy groups in recent months to obtain voters in front of the legislators, in particular the Democrats who feel vulnerable in their next offers for re-election during the mid-term.
“We made sure that they have heard of a constituent, that they had spoken to a trans person and heard in first hand of their voters how article 9 would have a negative impact,” said Willingham, referring to the bill by his Title in the Senate. “These conversations are incredibly important, and they have definitely moved the needle.”
In terms of the Senate and on social networks, the Democrats have strongly spoken against legislation. They pointed out that the means to apply it are not clear, that it could endanger the cisgenres and transgender girls by exposing them to invasive questions about their identity, and that the number of trans-athletes students known in schools and colleges from kindergarten to 12th year is fairly low.
“The small handful of trans Pennsylvania athletes in a political maelstrom deserves an ally and I am one,” said senator John Fetterman, Pennsylvania on Monday evening. “Depersonalized like” Il / them “in a political announcement, but are only schoolchildren. Empty entertainment votes or cruelty on social networks are not part of a thoughtful and dignified solution. »»
Fetterman referred to one of the Trump’s dollars’ anti-Trans by Trump campaignLaunched last fall, which ended with the slogan: “Kamala is for them / them. President Trump is for you. The announcement exploded Harris’ Support for sex -assembled care for transcribed people and the efforts of the Biden administration for Protect Trans athlete students. Shortly after election day, Fetterman describe The announcement as a powerful country tool.
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Democrat whip, said on Monday that the proposed bill does not explain how it would be applied – a similar conversation which took place on the soil of the room. In January, the House Republicans launched questions from democrats on how the bill would be applied.
“The bill – which does not have a clear execution mechanism – could submit to women and girls the physical inspection by an adult if a person from an opposing team accused them of being transgender,” said Durbin in a statement. “It affects the intimacy of girls and women and is a dangerous use of government powers to target students athlete of all ages.”
The bill would make a violation of the title IX, the federal law on civil rights which prohibits sex discrimination in educational establishments, so that schools allow transgender girls to compete in girls sports teams, which would endanger the federal funding of these schools. The law also defines sex based on “reproductive biology and genetics of an individual at birth”, which explicitly excludes transgender persons from federal protections of civil rights.
Although President Trump already has signed a decree threatening to retain federal funding from schools that allow trans girls in women’s teams, senator Tommy Tuberville, the republican sponsor of the Senate bill, noted on Monday that this order could be reversed by a future president – and that some states, as Mainerefused to follow the president’s order. He urged Democrats to join the Republicans to support the bill, arguing that women’s rights are sacrificed for transgender rights.
“Are we going to sacrifice the rights of 50% of this country for the rights of a few?” Tuberville told the Senate on Monday.
The Trump administration should continue to push against Trans rights – and not only by the development of policies. THE list Among the guests of the First Lady for the President’s speech at the Congress, include the mother of a trans child who came out at school but not at home, which caused a legal action for the family, and a former high school volleyball player who would have undergone a brain injury during a competition against a trans player.
The Senate Democrats’ firewall against the bill comes after Two Democrats in the House voted to support the bill in January. This also occurs after the Democrats of New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York and Texas won Trump’s victory in November as a sign that their party must move away from the defense of trans rights, in particular equal access in school athletics, For fear of losing voters.
“Democrats must stop bending to the far left,” said representative Tom Suozzi, a Democrat in New York The New York Times in November. “I don’t want to discriminate, but I don’t think organic boys should play in girls sports.”
Massachusetts representative Seth Moulton, a democrat, told Times in a separate post-electoral history That Democrats must change the way they discuss problems affecting trans people.
“Democrats spend too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges of many Americans are confronted,” he said. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them to continue on a playground by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a democrat, I am supposed to be afraid of saying it.”
Moulton later said in an interview MSNBC That although he considers the prohibition of trans pupils of certain school sports as going too far, he thinks that democrats must provide an alternative policy on this issue. He voted against The bill to prohibit trans girls from school sports, As he did the last time that the Republicans tried to adopt similar legislation in 2023.
In New Jersey, the Senator of the Democratic State Paul Sarlo said to a Local PBS station that trans women should be prohibited from practicing female sports.
“It’s very simple. Men should not participate in female sports, whether in terms of REC, secondary or collegial level, “he said. “I think that if we were talking a little more directly and that we had a little more common sense, we could have done much better in the polls. The elections have consequences. »»
Louise Walpin, a long -standing LGBTQ + activist living in New Jersey, was native while looking at Sarlo making these comments. She is a man whom she knows well. She and her wife worked in close collaboration with Sarlo from 2009 to 2013 to change her opinions in support of equality of marriage – and now, because of her comments on trans women, she wonders if Sarlo really supported LGBTQ +rights.
Trans women belong to women’s spaces, said Walpin. As a 71 -year -old Cisgenre lesbian, she considers the attacks with trans persons confronted as the same arguments that have been used against equality of marriage and the rights of homosexuals for decades.
“I really see so many parallels occurring now in the Trans community. The lack of dignity, the lack of equality, apart from the lack of real rights to exist, “she said. When she and her wife fought for the equality of marriage, they were told that they injured children and family unity and destroyed America. Trans people are informed of the same thing now, she said, and in response, some elected officials abandon democratic values.
In Willingham, Monday’s vote is a sign that the tide turns.
“I think that Democrats are now perfectly aware that it is not only concerns about security concerns in athletics and the opportunity of women. It is very clear that it is part of the wider attack to withdraw trans people from public life, and the Democrats see it, “he said. “They said, with this vote,” not on our watch “.”