The state of Mississippi has overwhelmingly voted in favor of Senate Bill 2536 which would ban transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports in schools, CNN reports. The 81-28 vote would apply to athletes at all of the state’s high schools and universities, with this vote following a 34-9 approval vote in the Republican-led Senate last month. The final approval now lies with Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who has repeatedly expressed disdain for transgender athletes and vowed to sign the legislation.
I will sign our bill to protect young girls from being forced to compete with biological males for athletic opportunities.
It’s crazy we have to address it, but the Biden E.O. forced the issue. Adults? That’s on them. But the push for kids to adopt transgenderism is just wrong. https://t.co/sncpaPlTbZ
— Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) March 4, 2021
- Biden signed a federal law prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity in sports. One of President Biden’s first directives signed into law when he took office was a measure designed to ensure transgender athletes could continue to compete in the activities they love based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex at birth. However, Republicans including Reeves have been major skeptics of this policy, with Reeves himself writing: “I am so disappointed over President Biden’s actions to force young girls like them to compete with biological males for access to athletics. It will limit opportunity for so many competitors like my daughters. It is bad policy and it is wrong for America.”
- The Human Rights Campaign has spoken out in criticism of the bill. The organization called the bill “a coordinated effort to erase trans existence,” with HRC’s president Alphonso David saying in a statement: “Today, in sending SB 2536 to Governor Reeves, Mississippi became the first state to take the plunge by passing legislation specifically attacking transgender children. … Mississippi is so determined to be on the wrong side of history that it is defying the evidence in favor of discrimination. There is simply no justification for banning transgender girls and women from participating in athletics other than discrimination.”
- Transphobic legislators have claimed that students might transition just for athletic advantage. The idea that anyone would change their entire life and choose a whole different gender identity so that they could beat fellow competitors who were born with female anatomy is ludicrous, but not to many people who hold transphobic views. “If legislators would simply listen to medical experts and transgender athletes, they might know that transitioning for the sake of a competitive advantage is simply unrealistic. So is the idea that transgender athletes even gain a supposed advantage in the first place,” said HRC state director Rob Hill.
- Very few American high schools allow transgender athletes to compete. Only 17 states welcome transgender athletes into competition without limitation or regulation, and it doesn’t seem that number will be going up anytime soon.
BREAKING: Mississippi just passed SB 2536, an anti-trans sports bill, becoming the first state in the nation to pass an explicitly anti-trans bill in 2021.
We are witnessing a coordinated effort to limit and erase trans existence across the country.
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) March 3, 2021
