The U.S. House of Representatives passed its first bill of the 119th Congress on Tuesday, voting in favor of the Women and Girls in Sports Protection Act.
All Republican representatives voted in favor of the bill, but only two Democrats, Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and Vicente Gonzales, D-Texas, voted for its passage. The remaining 206 House Democrats voted against it. Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., voted “present.”
Following the bill’s passage, Republican congressional representatives and women’s rights advocates condemned Democrats who voted against it at a news conference at the Capitol.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said it was “shameful” that only two Democrats voted to approve the bill.
“Two Democrats joined us, but it’s shameful, there should be many, many more. In fact, I maintain that every member of this body voted out of common sense and to protect women. But for some reason, I guess politics, they decided not to do it,” Johnson said.
“The American people sent a clear message in November: they want us to return to common sense, but it appears that some of our friends in the other party are ignoring that request.”
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Mike Johnson holds the gavel after being re-elected president on the first day of the 119th Congress at the United States Capitol on January 3, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, a prominent advocate for athletes’ rights who is leading a lawsuit against the NCAA for its stance on allowing trans athletes to compete as women, also lashed out at the 206 Democrats who voted against the bill. of law.
Gaines took aim at Democrats who argued against the new law on the grounds that it would result in girls being tested for athletic eligibility.
“We heard about things like genital exams, we heard that girls would be asked to show what’s in their underwear, we heard that they would have to show their internal and external anatomy, inspections, Taliban-like enforcers, hiring predators to attack boys. enforcers on and so on, weird scaremongering about predators, but that’s what Democrats do best,” Gaines said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem JeffriesDN.Y., sent out a post on Bluesky criticizing the legislation on Tuesday, making unsubstantiated claims that the law would “unleash horrific child predators on girls and young women.”
Jeffries’ office has not offered a substantive explanation for how the law would do this. When asked for comment by Pak Gazette Digital, a spokesperson simply said: “The post speaks for itself.”
Gaines also criticized those who said the bill was “a waste of time.”
“I heard that this bill is a waste of time, and let me tell you, the message I got when I heard that is that I’m a waste of time. Girls all over the country, just like me, are a waste of time. “Their daughters are a waste of time to all but two House Democrats.”
Riley Gaines, now a spokesperson for the Independent Women’s Forum, tied with Lia Thomas for fifth place in the 200 freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in March 2022. (Brett Davis-USA Today Sports)
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who reintroduced the bill in the House after a failed attempt to pass it in 2023, highlighted Democrats’ record in allowing and celebrating trans inclusion in women’s sports.
“For years, Democrats have tried to allow biologics [men] compete in our nation’s women’s collegiate activities,” Steube said.
“It is absolutely absurd that we have to pass a bill that says only women can participate in women’s sports!”
The Biden administration, along with other Democrats, has taken sweeping steps over the past four years to allow trans athletes to participate in women’s and girls’ sports.
On January 20, 2021, just hours after President Biden took office, he issued a executive order on “Prevention and fight against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.”
This order included a section that stated, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the bathroom, locker room, or school sports.”
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Some on the left have called for an end to trans inclusion efforts. (Mark Kerrison/In images via Getty Images)
Biden issued a sweeping rule in April 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.
Democrats have proposed other federal legislation that would allow greater inclusion of transgender people in women’s sports. These include the Equality Lawwhich was proposed in 2019 and has seen revisions that would “force public schools to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender on women’s sports teams.”
In March 2023, Democrats advocated for a transgender bill of rights and proposed a resolution “recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights.” the resolution specifically called for a federal law to ensure that biological males can “participate in sports on teams and in programs that best align with their gender identity; [and] use school facilities that best align with their gender identity.”
However, those stances appeared to backfire in the November election, when Trump and Republicans attacked Democratic opponents with television ads about their support for trans inclusion.
TO national exit poll conducted by the legislative action committee of Concerned Women for America (CW) found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of “Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing sports for girls and women as boys and transgender men use sports for girls and women. “bathrooms” as important to them. And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was “very important.”
“This was an opportunity to turn the page, leave partisan politics behind to finally prioritize people over Washington politics. But unfortunately, it remained a nearly all-party vote, with only two Democrats willing to affirm and protect the protections of the Title IX,” the CWA legislature said. strategist Macy Petty told Pak Gazette Digital.
“This vote was not about a complicated political issue, but about a clear truth that civilization has recognized since Creation. When abandoned, as we have seen, women and girls face devastating consequences that require moral clarity to correct. And that has been harder and harder to achieve here in Washington.”
