On Tuesday, the House passed a bill that would prohibit transgender athletes from playing women’s and girls’ sports at educational institutions that receive government funding.
A 218 to 206 vote mostly along party lines passed the bill, which would also change federal law to state that sex shall be recognized based exclusively on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.
Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez were the only two Democrats from Texas who supported the proposal. No Republicans opposed the legislation, and Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat from North Carolina, voted in favor of it.
The Senate will now consider the bill.
The legislation’s proponent, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., stated that its goal was to safeguard women’s sports.
“The distinction between men and women is clear and evident, and the erasure of this division has been promulgated by those in the radical left who seek to dismantle the core foundation of our society,” Steube stated on the House floor prior to the vote. “We must never let our country and the American way of life surrender to this immoral ideology.”
The sole female member of Congress who participated in Division I collegiate athletics, Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., claimed Republicans were use the proposal to “inject themselves into decisions they have no business making.”
“I have long placed my trust in the governing bodies of sports the experts who have dedicated their lives to these games to create fair and responsible rules for participation,” Trahan said during the speech.
Referred to as the “Child Predator Empowerment Act,” Trahan and other Democrats contend that the law jeopardizes school safety and exposes students to interrogation and physical examination.
With no Democratic backing, the bill passed the House in the most recent Congress in April 2023, but it failed to make headway in the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats. The majority is currently Republican.
Republican Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who last week defended a law prohibiting transgender individuals from using gender-neutral single-sex restrooms close to the House floor, claimed on Tuesday that Republicans “have yet again stood up for women.”
“I don’t apologize for being a Christian who believes in the Bible. But it’s also nature, whether you believe it to be true or not. At a press conference following the vote, he declared, “It’s biology.”