This week, a bill prohibiting transgender athletes in grades 5 through 12 from competing against their gender identity was enacted by the New Hampshire legislature.
Legislative supporters claimed that their goal was to shield young women from harm caused by bigger, more powerful transgender athletes.
“When we talk about fairness and rights, we can’t cover every circumstance. And so in a very narrow way that I think to most of us is very clear, biological boys have an advantage over biological girls,” Senate President Jeb Bradley, a Republican from Wolfeboro stated. “We’ll never be able to legislate total fairness. But what we can’t do is create rights for one at the expense of another.”
Democrats, on the other hand, claimed the plan was based on fear mongering. There are just five transgender girls that play sports in New Hampshire, according to Stratham, New Hampshire, Democrat Sen. Debra Altschiller.
“Those five girls are not a threat. They are the threatened,” she stated. “While this gesture of protection may seem valiant, we say, ‘No thank you.’ If you really want to protect girls, protect the marginalized transgender girls.”
The bill was passed a few weeks after Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders issued an executive order in reaction to new Title IX standards approved by President Biden, which provided additional rights for transgender athletes. Sanders expressed her “appalled” reaction to the “attack on common sense.”
Transgender athletes participating on K–12 and collegiate sports teams is prohibited in some form in at least 20 states, but a Biden administration rule prohibiting such complete bans is scheduled to go into effect this year following several delays and strong opposition.
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A law that would have prohibited transgender girls from playing on high school and collegiate sports teams in New Hampshire was previously approved by the Senate but was defeated earlier this month by the House.
The Department of Education was sued by six states as a result of the Title IX reform. Attorneys general Russell Coleman of Kentucky and Jonathan Skrmetti of Tennessee declared on Tuesday that they are spearheading the effort.
