House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., sent out a post on Bluesky criticizing the proposed Women and Girls in Sports Protection Act on Tuesday, making unsubstantiated claims that the law ” would unleash horrific child predators on girls and young women.”
“House Republicans’ Child Predator Empowerment Act does not advance fairness and safety in sports. It will unleash horrific child predators on girls and young women across America. Unacceptable,” Jeffries wrote.
Jeffries’ office has not offered a substantive explanation for how the law would do this when asked for comment by Pak Gazette Digital.
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“The post speaks for itself,” a spokesperson for Jeffries’ office told Pak Gazette Digital when asked for an explanation of the comments.
The proposed Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act has been reintroduced in the Senate by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, and by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., in the House, where it will be voted on. on Tuesday.
This bill generally aims to prohibit school sports programs from allowing people whose biological sex at birth was male from participating in programs aimed at women or girls.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, May 25, 2023. (Saúl Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Specifically, the bill provides that it is a violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 for federally funded educational programs or activities to operate, sponsor, or facilitate athletic programs or activities that permit males to participate in programs or activities. . that are designated for women or girls.
According to the bill, Sex is based on an individual’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.
The bill is only one page long and clarifies that it will not be a violation for “men to train or practice with an athletic program or activity designated for women or girls, provided that no woman shall be deprived of a spot on the team roster or sport, opportunity to participate in a practice or competition, scholarship, admission to an educational institution, or any other benefit that accompanies participation in the athletic program or activity.”
Currently, 25 states already have their own similar state laws to prevent trans athletes from competing against girls and women.
Jeffries is not the only prominent Democrat to call the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act the Empowering Child Predators Act.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., spoke out against the bill during a news conference Tuesday. Aguilar suggested that the bill’s failure to set an age limit for women’s sports could “result in inspections and people raising concerns.”
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“The most offensive thing about the legislation is that it doesn’t distinguish women’s sports at what age. It doesn’t distinguish whether you want an Olympic athlete, an NCAA player, a high school athlete regulated by your state, or whether you’re just playing soccer when you were 4 or 5 years on the street,” Aguilar said.
“It could potentially lead to inspections and people raising concerns. And how you proceed with that is something that the House Democratic Caucus is concerned about. And that’s why, you know, we feel like this is the Republican empowerment bill.” child predators.
Jeffries and Aguilar previously co-sponsored legislation that would allow trans athletes to compete in women’s and girls’ sports: the Equality Act.
That bill “would amend federal education laws to ensure that they protect students from discrimination based on sex, including gender identity and sex characteristics, and would guarantee the right of students to participate in team sports and in programs that best align with their gender identity.
However, Democrats’ push to allow trans inclusion in women’s sports became a party-wide vulnerability in the recent election cycle.
TO national exit poll conducted by the CWA Legislative Action Committee found that 70% of moderate voters considered the issue of “Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls’ and women’s sports because boys and girls” important to them. “transgender men use girls’ and women’s bathrooms.”
And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was “very important.”
In June, a survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago asked respondents to weigh in on whether transgender athletes of both sexes should be allowed to participate in sports leagues that correspond to their preferred gender identity rather than their biological sex.
Sixty-five percent responded that it should never or rarely be allowed. When respondents were asked specifically about adult transgender athletes competing on women’s sports teams, 69% were opposed.
Several Democrats have publicly withdrawn their support for trans inclusion, including Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, and Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.
Biden’s Department of Education was even forced to withdraw a proposed rule in December that would prohibit states from banning trans inclusion.
