“Transgender people have the right to participate in sports consistent with who they are, just like everyone else.”
Tennessee is now the third state to ban trans athletes from competing in middle and high school sports.
Under the new transphobic Tennessee HB3 legislation, students will now have to show “proof” of their sex by showing their birth certificate.
If a student cannot provide a birth certificate then another form of proof will have to be presented.
Governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, took to Twitter to explain why he passed the law.
“I signed the bill to preserve women’s athletics and ensure fair competition,” he wrote.
“This legislation responds to damaging federal policies that stand in opposition to the years of progress made under Title IX and I commend members of the General Assembly for their bipartisan work.”
The ACLU of Tennessee executive director, Hedy Weinberg, slammed the governor’s decision in a statement on Friday.
“Governor Lee’s rush to discriminate against transgender children is appalling,” she wrote.
“Transgender people have the right to participate in sports consistent with who they are, just like everyone else. Denying this right is pure discrimination.”
“When Lee has made every effort to deny women the ability to make decisions about their own bodies, his grandstanding about protecting women’s rights by discriminating against transgender children is disingenuous at best.
— ACLU of Tennessee (@aclutn) March 26, 2021
“Should any student be excluded because of this shameful legislation, we will see him in court.”
— ACLU of Tennessee (@aclutn) March 26, 2021
Over the years, the idea of trans women having an “unfair advantage” in sports has been disputed by scientists.
In a recent interview with NPR, paediatrician and geneticist Dr Eric Vilain de-bunked the numerous anti-trans bills due to them lacking scientific research.
“We know that men have, on average, an advantage in performance in athletics of 10% to 12% over women, which sports authorities have attributed to differences in levels of a male hormone called testosterone,” he explained.
“But the question is whether there is in real life, during actual competitions, an advantage of performance linked to this male hormone and whether trans athletes are systematically winning all competitions.
“The answer to this latter question, are trans athletes winning everything, is simple – that’s not the case.”
There are about 35 bills that are targeting trans rights. Many of them are trying to stop transgender athletes from participating in sporting teams that align with how they self-identify, according to Insider.
Mississippi was the first state to pass a law banning transgender girls and women from school sports with the “Mississippi Fairness Act”.
Bill 2536, which exists under the title “provide that schools designate teams by biological sex”, aims to make it state binding that educational institutions must segregate sports teams based on biological sex.
The legislation argues education institutions that are members of sporting associations such as the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) or NJCCA (National Junior College Athletic Association) must allocate team members strictly based on biological sex.
The bill outlines three specific categories such as “males”, “females”, and “coed” which discriminates against transgender athletes.
Arkansas and South Dakota have also passed their own transphobic bills.
Both of the states legislation now require “proof of sex” in order for students to play sports.
These laws are despicable and need to be stopped.
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