State House backs transgender sports ban

Bill keeps trans females from girls, women’s school sports

The GOP-controlled Florida House voted Wednesday to ban transgender females from playing girls or women’s school sports, part of a national push by conservatives that could mean NCAA championships aren’t held in Florida.

Lawmakers who voted for the “fairness in women’s sports act” (HB 1475) said it is needed to protect female athletes who could be denied athletic opportunities if they had to compete against transgender students who were born male.

But they conceded there are no documented problems in Florida. A similar bill passed in Idaho quickly landed in court where a federal judge ruled that the state could not ban transgender females from female sports teams. Idaho’s law is now on hold during appeals, but similar bills have been passed in several other states, and they have been introduced in more than 25.

The bill passed 77-40, with all Democrats in the House voting against it but for Rep. James Bush, D-Miami.

Opponents said Florida’s proposal was a bigoted and unnecessary effort to target transgender students, who are already often marginalized. They noted both the Florida High School Athletic Association and the

NCAA already have adopted policies that provide ways for transgender athletes to play on high school and college teams and say there have been no disputes in Florida.

The FHSAA requires documentation of “consistent identity and expression” and medical information as part of its process to clear transgender students to play on school sports teams. The NCAA allows transgender women to compete on women’s teams after

a year of hormone therapy.

The NCAA on Monday said its policy, which requires “testosterone suppression” for transgender women who compete on women’s teams, is similar to Olympic policies and is based on “inclusion and fairness.”

In deciding where to hold its championships, the NCAA would look only to locations that are “free of discrimination,” it said in a statement. “We will continue to closely monitor these situations to determine whether NCAA championships can be conducted in ways that are welcoming and respectful of all participants.”

The NCAA has several championship events scheduled in Florida in the coming year, including tennis in Altamonte Springs, golf in Howey-in-the-Hills and Orlando, volleyball in Tampa, rowing in Sarasota, and cross country in Tallahassee.

The group’s board of governors, which issued the statement, has not made a decision about what types of championships might be affected, a spokeswoman said in an email Wednesday.

Republican backers of the bill have said they weren’t worried about the NCAA’s threat. Sen. Rick Scott joined in, too, tweeting Tuesday, “The @NCAA likes to threaten FL and other states. Well, here’s a threat to the NCAA — the American people are not going to allow biological males to compete in women’s sports. It’s not going to happen.”

Rep. Kaylee Tuck, R-Lake Placid, sponsor of the House bill, denied her proposal is discriminatory and said it is instead about protecting female athletes so they “can participate in sports on an even playing field.”

Tuck said her bill would not stop anyone from playing sports but would require them to do so based on gender documented at birth.

Though there were no known problems in Florida, Tuck said that shouldn’t stop the Legislature from being “proactive” given that “biological males” have physical advantages over girls and women.

On Tuesday, Democrats in the House tried unsuccessfully, and for hours, to alter the bill and to convince Republican colleagues it was discriminatory. Their amendments failed by wide margins.

Many spoke against the bill before Wednesday’s vote.

“I don’t care how many times you tell yourself this is about women’s sports,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando.

The bill was not about athletics but “another avenue to attack the rights of trans people,” Eskamani said. “We lose the right to say we care about our kids if we pass this bill out of this chamber.”

Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, said transgender students have been playing on school sports teams in Florida since 2013 under FHSAA policies. “There’s been no problems,” he said.

He called the bill “indefensible” and unneeded. “It upends and cancels the well-established policies of the FHSAA and the NCAA.”

Equality Florida, a statewide LGBTQ civil rights group, said the bill pandered to “fear-mongering” and, if passed into law, would unfairly keep transgender children from playing sports.

“We know this is a nationally coordinated attack fueled by far right antiLGBTQ organizations, and the Florida House has taken the bait,” said Jon Harris Maurer, the group’s public policy director, in a statement. “The Florida Senate must hear the voices of transgender kids and reject this state-sanctioned discrimination.”

A Senate version of the bill, which provides some options for transgender females to play sports, is still in committee.

The ACLU, which has been fighting similar bills in other states, also condemned the House vote.

“We must not allow Florida to play a part in this coordinated and national attack on transgender kids,” said Kara Gross, legislative director and senior policy counsel of ACLU Florida, in a statement.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group, last year helped an Idaho lawmaker craft her bill to ban transgender students from female sports teams. The Idaho bill now in court served as a model for Florida’s and similar proposals in other states.

The alliance, in a statement on its website earlier Wednesday, wrote, “We commend the legislatures of West Virginia, Kansas, and Montana for joining the national coalition taking a stand for the rights of women and girls — including collegiate athletes — and standing up to bullying from corporate interests willing to throw them under the bus.”

Supporters of the House bill used similar arguments in supporting the Florida proposal, saying it was needed to continue the push for equity in girls and women’s sports.

“Allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports diminishes that equality,” said Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers. “That’s what this bill is about. It’s about giving women and girls an equal chance to succeed.”

Rep. Traci Koster, R-Tampa agreed, saying, “Sports shape women’s lives. And if the playing field isn’t fair, we take a step back in our efforts to lift women up.”