Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law on Monday, which essentially prohibits transgender students from participating in gender-specific public school sports.
Under the new rule, transgender students in Texas will not be allowed to join school sports teams that are not based on their assigned sex at birth. Male students who identify as female will not be able to join female-only teams, and vice versa.
The law will affect all Texas schools, including public elementary and secondary schools as well as colleges and universities. It will also cover all of those schools’ sports teams.
The law will go into force in January. Student-athletes who wish to play on teams that aren’t linked with their natal gender can do so, but they’ll need a court order to modify their gender markers.
The bill’s proponent, Representative Valoree Swanson, claimed the measure was all about girls and safeguarding them, especially those in the state’s University Interscholastic League. Swanson went on to say that the new law is also needed to create a level playing field.
Critics have condemned the bill’s passage, calling it “discriminatory” and a violation of the LGBTQ community’s rights. Meanwhile, proponents of the bill applauded its passage, citing multiple occasions in which transgender athletes have been given an unfair edge in certain competitions.
Several examples have been given by supporters of how athletes born male competed unjustly in women’s sports.
Equality Texas, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said on Monday that such rules are not the best approach to safeguard children. According to the organization, politicians are missing the point by not allowing transgender children to play with whoever they choose without fear of persecution.
More than 40 measures aimed at transgender children have been submitted in Texas. However, the rule prohibiting transgender students from participating in school athletics is the first to be passed into law. Texas has become the tenth state to approve legislation prohibiting transgender children from playing on teams that do not correspond to the gender given to them at birth.
