The 119th US Congress has indicated that taking legislative action to ban trans athletes from women’s and girls’ sports will be one of its top priorities this month.
The House rules package for the 119th Congress was released this week, and the first step on its agenda is a bill that would bring revisions to Title IX that would only allow athletes to compete in the gender category they are eligible for. was assigned at birth.
“A bill to amend the Educational Amendments of 1972 to provide that, for purposes of determining compliance with title IX of said Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth “, the first point of the final text. read the package section.
The package stated that the bill would be the first of 12 bills to be considered separately, with one hour of debate.
Republicans regained control of the White House and Senate while retaining the House of Representatives in the November elections after a heated campaign season in which trans inclusion in women’s sports became an issue. key theme.
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to impose a complete ban on trans athletes in women’s sports, with nearly unanimous support from Republican allies.
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Currently, 25 US states have laws to restrict or prevent trans athletes from competing in women’s sports. But the other 25 states have no such laws and many, like California, even have laws that specifically allow trans athletes to compete against women or girls.
But even states that have laws to prevent trans athletes from participating in women’s sports have had their laws struck down by federal judges this year. Judges Landya McCafferty of New Hampshire and M. Hannah Lauck of Virginia each approved rulings in 2024 that allowed biological males to play on high school girls’ soccer and tennis teams. Both judges were appointed by former President Obama in the early 2010s.
Meanwhile, Democrats have backed multiple bills that would allow trans inclusion in women’s sports nationally, including the Equality Act and the Transgender Bill of Rights.
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It was an issue that sparked fierce criticism against Democrats and the Biden administration from the day President Biden took office in January 2021.
On his first day in office, he issued a executive order on “Prevention and fight against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.” The order included a section that said, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the bathroom, locker room, or school sports.”
Then, in April, the administration issued a sweeping rule clarifying that Title IX’s ban on “sex” discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, and “pregnancy or related conditions.” The administration insisted that the regulation does not address athletic eligibility. However, several experts evidence presented to Pak Gazette Digital in June that would ultimately include more biological males in women’s sports.
Several states filed lawsuits and enacted their own laws to address this problem, and then the Supreme Court then voted 5-4 in August to reject an emergency request from the Biden administration to enforce its sweeping changes in those states.
The issue turned out to be one of the key vulnerabilities of Vice President Harris’s campaign and Democrats across the country in the last election.
TO national exit poll conducted by Concerned Women for America’s legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of “Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls’ and women’s sports and transgender boys and men wearing girls’ and women’s bathrooms” as important to them.
And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was “very important.”
Since then, several Democrats have withdrawn their support. Biden’s Department of Education dropped a proposed rule change that would have schools punished for preventing trans athletes from competing in women’s sports in December. The rule was proposed in April 2023, but is now just a failed endeavor as Biden prepares to leave office.
