Senate panel backs gender requirement in high school sports

Students participating in high school sports would have to compete according to the gender that appears on their birth certificate under a proposal moving up in the Georgia Senate.

The biggest impact from Senate Bill 266 would apparently apply to transgender girls.

Sen. Marty Harbin, a Tyrone Republican and the sponsor of SB 266, said it “protects the level playing field.”

“Forcing girls to play against biological males limits the ability of young women in the state of Georgia to win competitions, receive scholarships and to achieve the highest levels of success and in their sports,” Harbin said.

Harbin was unable to list any instances where a transgender girl either took the spot of another student or received a scholarship that another young athlete could have received in Georgia. But he said it was important to get ahead of the issue.

Jen Slipakoff said the legislation would leave her 13-year-old transgender daughter unable to participate in sports.

“It’s not dangerous for my daughter to be on the same sports team as her girlfriends,” said Slipakoff, who described her lacrosse-playing daughter as 4 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 60 pounds. “She’s not taking the spot of another more deserving girl — as if my daughter deserves less. She’s not a threat. Rather, she’s a teenager that has worked for the last decade trying to help people understand who she really is.”

The bill would require schools to define a student’s gender based on “a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” A young athlete who could prove she was deprived of an opportunity that was given to a transgender girl, or was harmed by a transgender girl while playing a sport, could then sue the school or school system for damages.

Opponents of the bill warned that it could lead to increased suicide attempts by transgender children. They also said it could cost the state money by jeopardizing its ability to hold large events, such as those put on by the NCAA.

The Senate Education and Youth Committee approved the measure on a party-line vote of 5-3, with Republicans voting in favor of the bill.