Senator Judy Ward is the primary sponsor of the Save Women's Sports Act which would ban transgender girls and women from women's sports at public schools and colleges in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Legislature
Pennsylvania Republicans send bill banning transgender women from school sports to Senate floor
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Jordan Wilkie/WITF
Pennsylvania Legislature
Senator Judy Ward is the primary sponsor of the Save Women's Sports Act which would ban transgender girls and women from women's sports at public schools and colleges in Pennsylvania.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly represented Gov. Josh Shapiro’s past statements on legislation banning transgender athletes from school sports.
Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate on Wednesday advanced a bill that would restrict the participation of transgender student athletes in sports, setting up a vote before the full Senate.
The bill, passed out of the Senate Education Committee and which defines “sex” as strictly male or female and assigned at birth, would prevent transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports from grade school through college. It makes no mention of transgender boys participating in athletics.
The bill does not mention gender. Experts from organizations including the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association and American Psychological Association describe gender as a socially-constructed spectrum that is not dependent on biological or physiological characteristics as sex is. The use of the term transgender describes people whose gender does not match the one usually associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.
“ This is about biology, right? This is our inherent nature, and I’ve been frustrated watching our young women struggle over the past several years to compete on a fair platform and have opportunities and victories swiped from them,” Sen. Dawn Keefer, R-York, said during the hearing.
Republicans made little distinction between athletic leagues for children in public schools and college athletes, all of which would be covered under this bill. They referenced but did not cite examples of girls and women struggling to compete on a fair platform and suffering harm, such as injury, due to competition against transgender athletes.
Research from UCLA’s Williams Institute shows that 1.3% of 13- to 17-year-olds in Pennsylvania identify as transgender, or 10,000 children. Another 1.5% of 18- 24-year-olds in the state identify as transgender, or 16,900 young adults. The Institute’s research also shows approximately 40% of transgender students in grades 9 through 12 participate in sports. Fewer than 10 transgender athletes compete at the collegiate level, according to NCAA President Charlie Baker.
Sen. Timothy Kearney, D-Delaware, mentioned Lia Thomas during the hearing, a transgender woman who won the 500-yard freestyle race at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. Thomas began her transition in college, meaning she completed puberty as a male before beginning hormone replacement therapy.
“I think we all agree that was something that probably should have been stopped,” Kearney said.
After President Trump signed an executive order in January banning transgender girls and women from competitive sports in public schools and colleges, the NCAA followed suit with its own rule change. The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference also changed its rules for participation in collegiate sports to follow NCAA guidelines.
Kearney and all Democrats on the Senate committee opposed the bill. Kearney and Sen. Carolyn Comitta, D-Chester, pointed out that since sports governing bodies have already changed their rules, the intervention of the Legislature is not necessary. Kearney also said he recognized the difficulty people go through when they transition.
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) and the Lancaster-Lebanon League have no guidelines or policy on transgender athletes.
Congressional Republicans passed a similar bill out of the U.S. House in January. The Senate has not taken it up.
State Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-Allegheny, opposed the bill on its premise rather than on a deferral to another governing body.
“This bill assumes that female bodies are less than male bodies, that girls are at an automatic disadvantage and can’t possibly compete against boys even though girls do it every day,” Williams said.
Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair, the bill’s primary sponsor, said the participation of transgender women in sports rolls back 50 years of gender progress under Title IX’s federal protections against gender-based discrimination.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman’s office did not respond for comment about when he would bring the bill for a vote on the Senate floor.
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office also did not respond, though he has stated previously that a similar bill from 2021 was “nothing more than cruel, designed to discriminate against transgender youth who just want to play sports like their peers.” Shapiro was Attorney General at the time.
Elizabeth Rementer, spokesperson for House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, said the bill was political theater that bullied children for political points.
“In the House, we remain focused on building good schools for every kid, cutting costs for working families and making sure everyone can see a doctor,” Rementer said.
Forty state House Republicans, led by Rep. Barbara Gleim, R-Cumberland, introduced a similar bill to ban trans women athletes from public school sports. The Democratic House majority referred the bill to their Education Committee, where it has not moved.
An August 2022 poll from Franklin & Marshall College assessed public opinion on whether Pennsylvania should require “athletes to participate in sports based on their gender assigned at birth.” Sixty-four percent of respondents strongly or somewhat supported the position, compared to 29% strongly or somewhat opposing, with the remainder without an opinion.
PA Youth Congress, which advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, prepared form letters for constituents to send to senators. In them, PA Youth Congress says the bill “ignores the science that sex is not binary in chromosomes, hormones, or physical characteristics — and is a serious, intentional attack on girls who are transgender.”
Research from the Centers for Disease Control shows transgender youth experience bullying and unstable housing at higher rates than their peers, which affects their mental health. The research also notes elevated suicide rates among transgender students.
Anyone experiencing crisis can call 988 to reach the suicide prevention hotline. The Trevor Project offers chat, text and call hotlines LGBTQ+ people in crisis, while SAGE offers a hotline specifically for older LGBTQ+ adults.
The Associated Press contributed reporting for this story.
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