A conservative group and some legislators are worried that a bill backed by the White House that is pending in the U.S. Senate, could nullify state laws that prohibit trans-identified males from competing in women’s sports.
One senator introduced an amendment to address the matter.
Still, the White House pressed the Senate to pass the Protect College Sports Act in a statement of administration policy published Thursday, describing the bill as a measure that “facilitates clear, commonsense rules and student-athlete protections, preserves opportunities across all athletic programs, and curtails the vexatious litigation plaguing college sports.”
According to the Christian Post, the bill is backed by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the bill has attracted seven co-sponsors from both parties: Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; Chris Coons, D-Del.; John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.; Pete Ricketts, R-Neb.; Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.; and Peter Welch, D-Vt.
Nevertheless, a Christian conservative advocacy group and legislators have voiced worries that the bill could undermine the nationwide effort to bar trans-identified males from women’s sports, an effort President Donald Trump has backed with an executive order threatening to pull federal funding from schools that permit men to compete in women’s sports.
“The Protect College Sports Act, which addresses issues such as Name, Image, and Likeness agreements and student athlete transfers, creates an unnecessary risk of undermining the Supreme Court win, President Trump’s Executive Order, and many other hard-earned victories for women and girls,” Alliance Defending Freedom CEO and Chief Counsel Kristen Waggoner said in a statement Thursday.
ADF has defended several female athletes who lost competitions to trans-identified male athletes. Such cases have become a rallying cry for requiring athletes to compete on teams matching their biological sex rather than their stated gender identity.
“The bill sets general eligibility rules for college athletes and then preempts states from maintaining their own eligibility rules, which could include laws saying men are ineligible for women’s teams,” Waggoner added. “For weeks, ADF has warned Congress that activists could misuse the bill’s existing preemption language to argue that states’ women’s sports laws can no longer be enforced.”
“We are living in a moment where lawyers can’t even define what a woman is. There’s no room for ambiguity. Let’s not undo the hard-fought gains or pass permanent legislation that could jeopardize these victories. We are thankful for President Trump’s legacy of protecting women’s sports to date and we don’t want to see it undone.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., filed an amendment Thursday clearing up that “any law, regulation, rule, requirement, or standard that prohibits biological men from playing in women’s sports” would be protected.
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