This week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced his intent to pass legislation to ban transgender athletes from competing in college sports in the state.
Abbott made the remarks at a gathering for Young America’s Foundation and said that Texas lawmakers will move forward with legislation on the issue this year.
"In Texas last session, we passed a law prohibiting biological men from competing in women's sports in the education level from high school down," Abbott said. "This next session, we will pass a law prohibiting biological men to compete against women in college sports.”
"Women and only women should be competing in college or high school sports, as well as representing the United States of America in our Olympic sports," Abbott added.
So far, 18 states have passed laws or placed restrictions on biological male “transgender” athletes from competing in women’s sports. This week, Townhall covered how a federal appeals court announced it would reconsider a lawsuit challenging a policy in Connecticut that allows biological males to compete against women at the high school level.
In Abbott’s remarks, he referenced transgender swimmer Will “Lia” Thomas, who competed on the women’s swim team at University of Pennsylvania after competing on the men’s team for three years. Female swimmers were forced to compete and share a locker room with Thomas. Thomas ended up winning a Division I title in a women’s race at the NCAA championships.
‘’I can still recall that woman who was a swimmer who lost to the transgender swimmer,” Abbott said, referring to Emma Weyant, an Olympian who came in second place to Thomas at the NCAA championships, which Townhall covered.
“Think how many hours that woman spent from her early childhood to the time when she was in college, only to come in second place because she had to compete against a person who was biologically a man,” Abbott said. “We’ve fought for the rights of women to be able to succeed in this world only to have that now superseded by this ideology that men are going to be empowered to compete against women and things that should be protected by federal law. By State law.”
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Abbott noted that Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer who continued to compete after losing her arm to a shark, said recently that she will no longer compete in World Surf League events after it unveiled a policy allowing biological male “transgender” athletes to compete in the women’s division.
On National Girls and Women in Sports Day, Townhall interviewed Riley Gaines, a former swimmer at the University of Kentucky who tied against Thomas in a race at the NCAA championships.
“If this continues, it’s a slippery slope. It’s truly only a matter of time before one transgender athlete winning a national title in the women’s category becomes three and five and 10 and so on,” Gaines explained. “I think truthfully it will become…the integrity of women’s sports will be lost.”
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