In a span of just two days, the governors of Arkansas and Tennessee signed bills banning transgender women and girls, as well as some non-binary individuals, from participating in school sports.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed his state’s bill on March 25 and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee followed suit on March 26 with similar legislation. The states are the latest to enact such laws in the weeks since Mississippi became the first state this year to approve an anti-trans sports bill.
Arkansas’ “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” or SB 354, restricts students from participating in accordance with their gender identity and stipulates that athletes should be separated based on “biological sex.” Throughout the bill’s text, legislators double down on transphobic claims, pointing to “biological differences” to make an argument that there are unfair challenges to cisgender women and girls in sports.
