In recent years, as Townhall has covered, biological males who claim to identify as women have infiltrated women's sports and, in some cases, robbed them of accolades and opportunities. One, in particular, was Will "Lia" Thomas, who competed on the University of Pennsylvania's women's swim team last year after competing on the men's team for three years. Thomas won races against women and took home an NCAA Division I Title, which Townhall covered. This week, one state moved forward with legislation to protect women's college sports from transgender athletes.
On Tuesday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, signed legislation prohibiting male-bodied athletes who believe they are transgender women from competing in women's college sports. This new legislation expands on the state's already-existing law protecting girls' K-12 sports from trans competitors. A slew of other states have passed similar legislation prohibiting trans athletes in girls' sports, kindergarten through high school.
"Look, if you are a biological male, you are not going to be competing in women's and girls' sports in Alabama. It's about fairness, plain and simple," Ivey said in a statement published Tuesday.
"Forcing women to compete against biological men would reverse decades of progress that women have made for equal opportunity in athletics," Republican State Rep. Susan DuBose, the bill's sponsor, said last month, according to Fox News.
Dubose added that "no amount of hormone therapy can undo all those advantages" of being born male.
In a statement, the pro-LGBTQ+ Human Rights Campaign said that the legislation is "discriminatory" because it forces transgender athletes to participate on sports teams that align with their biological sex instead of their gender identity.
"By signing HB 261 into law, Governor Ivey is actively taking part in the systematic attack against LGBTQ+ people. In just two years, she and extremist lawmakers in Alabama have passed four anti-LGBTQ+ bills. From dictating what bathrooms we can use to blatantly ignoring the actual problems in women's sports, these politicians are making Alabama an increasingly hostile place for transgender people and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. HRC will continue to fight state legislatures across the country that apparently think our rights are optional," HRC Alabama State Director Camarian D. Anderson-Harvey said in a statement.
On the national level, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) and Florida Rep. Greg Steube (R) announced the "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023." The House bill was introduced on Feb. 1 as part of National Girls and Women in Sports Day in response to the Biden administration's push to rewrite Title IX to include the concept of "gender identity."
"By allowing biological males onto women's teams and into women's locker rooms, the woke Left is working to completely wipe away women's sports. The best way to counter Biden's dangerous rewrite of Title IX is for Congress to pass the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. Every student, parent, teacher, and citizen deserves to know where their member of Congress stands on this issue," Steube told Townhall when the legislation was announced.
"Throughout my coaching career, I saw the incomparable success of Title IX and the educational and personal opportunities sports have provided to millions of female athletes. For more than 50 years, this law has empowered young women to grow personally, compete professionally, and receive scholarships to further their education," Tuberville added.
"The positive impacts of a fair playing field in women's sports are unmatched, but the Biden administration is forcing female athletes to the sidelines by allowing biological males to compete where they do not belong," he continued. "It's unfair, it's unsafe, and it's wrong. We cannot stand by and let girls and women in sports lose to the radical left's agenda. I am proud to introduce this legislation, and will continue fighting to preserve a level playing field for all current and future female athletes."
