Athlete Ally Responds to the Introduction of a Federal Trans & Intersex Sports Ban, H.R. 734
March 6, 2023 — Athlete Ally responded today to news that the Committee on Education and the Workforce introduced the so-called “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” (H.R. 734), which would stipulate that Title IX compliance requires a federal ban of transgender & intersex girls and women from participating in sports.
The passage of this bill would prevent transgender & intersex women and girls across the country from accessing the proven mental and physical benefits of sport, and it fails to take into account recent research and policies at the highest level of sport which affirm that transgender women do not have an inherent advantage in sport.
“This bill is part of an ongoing, coordinated national effort to erase transgender & intersex children from public life,” said Athlete Ally’s Founder and Executive Director Hudson Taylor. “If it was not, it would take into consideration the painstakingly documented challenges women and girls face in sport and the importance of sport participation for the wellbeing and development of all young people. Instead, this bill is attempting to make all transgender children an outsider to one of the most important institutions in society. Any policy that would apply the same standards to a child and a professional athlete is not a policy genuinely designed to protect anyone. It is my deepest hope that transgender & intersex kids will never have to feel the isolation, exclusion and othering that this legislation is seeking to enshrine in law.”