Republicans Advance Bill to Limit Transgender Students in College Sports
Credit: Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call / Getty Images- Republican lawmakers reintroduced the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
- The bill would impact the ability of transgender women to compete on sports teams matching their gender identity.
- The U.S. House of Representatives quickly passed the bill to the U.S. Senate.
- Just 0.002% of college athletes identify as transgender.
Republican lawmakers in the first weeks of January made clear that limiting transgender students’ participation in college sports remains a top policy priority.
Once again, leaders in the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce kicked off the congressional session by endorsing the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
The bill — which quickly passed the House of Representatives — would prevent colleges and universities that accept federal funding from allowing people to compete on sports teams that don’t match their birth-assigned gender. Specifically, the proposal only forbids people assigned “male” at birth from competing on women’s sports teams.
It makes an exception allowing a transgender athlete to train or practice with a team designated for women “so long as no female is deprived of a roster spot on a team or sport.”
Rep. Greg Steube, a Republican representing Florida, proposed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act in the House of Representatives on Jan. 3. Steube was joined by 56 original cosponsors, all Republican, including Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg of Michigan.
“The radical left is not in step with the American people on the issue of protecting women’s sports,” Steube said in a statement.
A companion bill in the Senate, introduced by Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, attracted 35 cosponsors.
This echoes priorities from when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2023. The Education and the Workforce Committee’s first markup session was for an earlier version of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
The 2023 bill did pass the House of Representatives but was never brought to a vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Things may be different this time around.
With Republicans holding the majority in both legislative branches and President-elect Donald Trump soon to take the White House, this bill could soon become law. Trump himself has said he plans to institute rules to bar transgender women from participating on sports teams matching their gender identity.
NCAA President Charlie Baker recently told a Senate panel that fewer than 10 of the 510,000 athletes competing in college athletics are transgender. That’s less than 0.002% of all college athletes.