ATLANTA – Transgender student athletes would be banned from female sports under two bills in the Georgia legislature, and the version from the state Senate has taken the lead.
A committee of the Georgia House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 1 Tuesday after it was amended to mirror some elements of the version from the House of Representatives, which awaits a Senate hearing.
Both measures passed their own chambers largely along party lines.
The Senate version now carries the same title as House Bill 267, which was named after Riley Gaines. She became a flag bearer for the movement to ban transgender athletes born male from female sports after she lost a swimming championship to a transgender athlete in 2022.
SB 1 was not amended to copy HB 267 in one very big way though: the House bill would alter most of Georgia law to read “sex” where the word “gender” is used. SB 1 would only do that in relation to school and college sports.
Proponents, including Christian groups, say a ban is needed to protect female athletes against physically stronger competitors despite testimony that very few transgender athletes exist and that transgender people are not always larger and stronger.
“We are creating a boundary around female sport,” Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the chief sponsor of SB 1, said Tuesday. The House Education Committee then passed his bill on to the House Rules Committee, paving the way for a vote by the full House. There was significant committee opposition to passage, but it was a voice vote without a public tally.
Rep. Josh Bonner, R-Fayetteville, the chief sponsor of HB 267, signaled House collaboration with the Senate when he called the new version of SB 1 a “commonsense compromise.”
Before the vote, the committee took public testimony that was consistent with what lawmakers have heard previously. A lawyer for Frontline Policy Action, a Christian advocacy group, testified that her organization helped write both the House and Senate versions of the legislation and supported SB 1, as did a representative of the Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition.
Critics testified that if SB 1 were to become law, females who look male could get accused of being transgender and become subject to bullying. The legislation empowers parents to make accusations and to sue schools and colleges — both public and private — that they believe have violated the transgender prohibition.
Opponents also said elementary school children would be affected despite the focus on adults like Gaines.
Transgender people are an exceptionally small demographic. The Williams Institute at the UCLA law school estimates there are 1.6 million transgender people ages 13 and older in the United States, including nearly 22,000 in Georgia, of whom 3,400 are minors.
“With so many Georgians struggling for things like just trying to get by and pay the bills, I really wonder why we’re focused on this,” said Rev. Kimble Sorrells, a United Church of Christ minister. “It feels like this is really just political grandstanding.”