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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana lawmakers advanced a Republican-backed bill Monday that would ban transgender women and girls from participating in school sports that match their gender identity.
The bill would prohibit students who were born male but identify as female from participating in a sport or on an athletic team that is designated for women or girls. But it wouldn’t prevent students who identify as female or transgender men from playing on men’s sports teams.
House education committee chair Rep. Bob Behning of Indianapolis said the bill, which now heads to the full House, is supported by a “majority” of House Republicans.
The legislation drew nearly three hours of testimony in the committee on Monday, with opponents maintaining that it’s unconstitutional, sexist and bigoted.
“Sports are promoted for K through 12 kids not so they can become scholarship, pro athletes, but because … sports participation builds self esteem, positive mental health outcomes, self confidence and scholastic achievement,” said Emma Vosicky, executive director of GenderNexus, an Indianapolis-based social service agency for trans and nonbinary people and their families. “(This bill) wants to strip these benefits from a whole category of children as punishment for their experience and understanding of their gender.”
Representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union testified that the group intends to file a lawsuit if the “hateful legislation” is signed into law.
“There is no place in Indiana where trans girls have taken over girls sports teams,” said Kit Malone, advocacy strategist at the ACLU of Indiana. “Trans people by whatever name used to call them are your neighbors, your friends, your family members, students in your schools. How can we possibly do this?”
Republican Rep. Michelle Davis of Greenwood, who authored the bill, said the purpose of the proposal is to “maintain fair competition in girls’ sports.” She supported an amendment accepted by the education committee on Monday that removes postsecondary education athletics from the proposal.
“I know from experience that female athletes deserve fair competition and an even playing field,” Davis said. “This bill will ensure just that—a fair and equal opportunity to compete—for Hoosier girls, now and in the future.”
The legislation would also establish a civil action for violations, and schools wouldn’t be subject to liabilities for complying with it.
Davis said the grievance provisions could be filed by a coach or an athletic director if a student on a team had an “unfair advantage” that was “blatant” or “extraordinary,” although she acknowledged that students who are excluded from playing sports under the legislation could take civil action, too.
Idaho state Rep. Barbara Ehardt testified Monday at the Indiana Statehouse that the legislation “is not about humanity or inclusion,” but rather “about competition and winning.”
The conservative Republican representative from Idaho Falls passed the nation’s first ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports in 2020, although the law hasn’t been active for over a year while it’s being challenged in court.
If the bill passes the Legislature, Indiana could be the 10th Republican-dominated state to adopt such a ban on transgender women or girls. In two of those states—Idaho and West Virginia—the laws have been halted by federal judges. The U.S. Department of Justice has challenged bans in other states, slamming them as violations of federal law.
At least half a dozen other bills proposed by conservative lawmakers in both chambers of the General Assembly in the current legislative session further seek to limit rights for transgender Hoosiers.
One House bill would prohibit transgender people from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. Another seeks to ban gender changes on birth certificates.
In the Senate, a bill filed by Republican Sen. Erin Houchin of Salem would amend Indiana law to clarify that using pronouns that are not consistent with a child’s gender identity is not considered child abuse or neglect.
A separate proposal authored by Republican Sen. Dennis Kruse of Auburn would ban gender-modifying medical care for minors, including surgeries or prescribed hormones, regardless of parental approval. However, Kruse told The Indianapolis Star his bill would not be advancing.
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Ohio spends their time landing an Intel plant that bring tens of thousands of jobs … Indiana spends their time on transgendered athletes and critical race theory.
Indiana, A State That Works on the wrong things.
All I can say about this is transgender teens are in the highest risk group for suicide. Seriously ~ how about focusing on mental health and other important issues rather than backward issues like this. In the big picture, athletics is not what we should be concerned about.
“… she acknowledged that students who are excluded from playing sports under the legislation could take civil action, too.”
Great – so they know the law is illegal discrimination and still plan to force it through their super-majority.
Any Republicans paying attention? Is pushing this legislation going to help make Indiana a better place for anyone? Can anyone on the right justify why our elected officials are prioritizing divisive, discriminatory bills instead of bills to help Hoosiers?
Yes, I’ll give it a try. Unfortunately in Indiana, we have a one-sided partisan legislature that is reactionary to whatever current topic is being trotted out by the media to divide all of us and make us hate one another. They immediately seize on it and act as though we need them to address the issue to save us from ourselves. This seems to be this week’s issue. When sporting bodies all over the world are forced to deal with this issue by a minuscule yet loud activist group, of course the powerful bodies we elect feel obligated to react. Nevertheless, while likely being a total waste of time and taxpayer resources because this issue impacts such a small sliver of the population, the issue at hand simply comes down to this: anyone with a brain who, despite not believing what their eyes and common sense are clearly telling them, applies basic scientific principles to this particular esoteric situation can clearly draw the conclusion that one who is born a male (defined by various aspects of biology such as genetics, embryology, phenotypic morphology, and especially sexual anatomy and the structure and types of sex cells) has quantifiable and statistically significant (and measurable) general physical advantages to one born female when it comes to many sports. If sports are not fair, they are no longer a sport. And in Indiana, we take our sports pretty seriously. If progressives “believe in science” or care about female rights, they should probably drop this as an issue, because it will ultimately be female sports that suffer.
The IHSAA testified they had a policy for several years already that requires “transgender girls who want to play sports to show they’ve completed hormone therapy, and that their muscle mass or bone density is typical of other girls the same age”. So feel free to explain how that wasn’t scientific enough.
Even then, they’ve had only one case of someone transgendered even trying to play sports. One person, ever. Apparently that was one person too many for supporters of this bill, so the state of Indiana has to step in and negate that policy.
As far as people caring, a reminder that this is the same legislature that wouldn’t step in to stop the IHSAA from implementing class basketball … I am pretty sure that way more people cared about class basketball than transgendered athletes.
https://www.wibc.com/news/local-indiana/house-panel-votes-to-bar-trans-students-from-competing-in-ihsaa-girls-sports/
Ok.
“The 15–31% athletic advantage that transwomen displayed over their female counterparts prior to starting gender affirming hormones declined with feminising therapy. However, transwomen still had a 9% faster mean run speed after the 1 year period of testosterone suppression that is recommended by World Athletics for inclusion in women’s events.”
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/55/11/577.full?ijkey=yjlCzZVZFRDZzHz&keytype=ref
“In addition, maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), which correlates to ~30-40% of success in endurance sports, is higher in both elite and average men and boys than in comparable women and girls when measured in regards to absolute volume of oxygen consumed and when measured relative to body mass.”
https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/a69528e3-c613-4bcc-9931-258260a4e77f/downloads/2020.01.07%20G%20Brown%20Report%20Executed.pdf?ver=1642651715032
“As to bone strength, Knox et al. report that a “recent meta-analysis shows that hormone therapy provided to transwomen over 2 years maintains bone density so bone strength is unlikely to fall to levels of cis-women, especially in an
elite athlete competing and training at high intensity. Increased bone strength also translates into protection against trauma, helping with recovery and prevention of injury.””
https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/a69528e3-c613-4bcc-9931-258260a4e77f/downloads/2020.01.07%20G%20Brown%20Report%20Executed.pdf?ver=1642651715032
“Conclusion: Cross-sex hormone treatment markedly affects muscle strength, size and composition in transgender
individuals. Despite the robust increases in muscle mass and strength in TM, the TW were still stronger and had more muscle mass following 12 months of treatment. These findings add new knowledge that could be relevant when evaluating transwomen’s eligibility to compete in the women’s category of athletic competitions”
https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/a69528e3-c613-4bcc-9931-258260a4e77f/downloads/Karolinska.pdf?ver=1642651715032
So … based on the IHSAA’s current rules, the transgendered would never be eligible in Indiana because despite hormone therapy, they’d still have too much muscle mass and bone density.
So, the IHSAA already has a policy that handles your complaint. So , take another try, why do we need this law?
WE DON’T!
Unfortunate. Continued embarrassments at the Statehouse. Such bills display Indiana as a welcoming wonderful place. Who may next be banned? Which book will be banned? Freedom is in the eye of the beholder apparently.