The Texas House of Representatives approved a bill on October 14 prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in school sports teams that align with their gender identity.
Under HB 25, public school sports teams must use the sex listed on a student athlete’s birth certificate entered at the time or near the time of their birth, effectively blocking transgender players from being able to participate. The bill, led by Republican House Representative Valoree Swanson of Texas, passed by a 76 to 54 margin and is now heading to the upper house for a vote.
“The purpose of this Act is to further the governmental interest of ensuring that sufficient interscholastic athletic opportunities remain available for girls to remedy past discrimination on the basis of sex,” the bill states. “An interscholastic athletic team sponsored or authorized by a school district or open-enrollment charter school may not allow a student to compete in an interscholastic athletic competition sponsored or authorized by the district or school that is designated for the biological sex opposite to the student’s biological sex.”
