(The Center Square) – A Georgia Senate committee meeting on the participation of transgender athletes in women's sports drew criticism over proposed legislation while former President Donald Trump said he would ban it on a visit to the Peach State.
Trump made his comments Wednesday morning during a Fox News town hall in Cumming with an all-female audience.
Transgender woman means a person assigned the male sex at birth who identifies and lives femininely.
"You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don't let it happen," Trump said in response to an audience question .
The issue has been a political football in Georgia.
The Georgia High School Association requires high school athletes to compete based on the sex on their birth certificate. The Board of Regents doesn't have a policy on transgender athletes. Last week, the Board passed a resolution asking the NCAA to mirror rules set by the NAIA, which require athletes to compete based on their sex at birth.
"Biologically female student-athletes could be put at a competitive disadvantage when student-athletes who are biologically male or who have undergone masculinizing hormone therapy compete in female athletic competitions," the board said in its resolution.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has favored letting the General Assembly decide the issue and a Senate Special Committee on the Protection of Women's Sports is holding a series of meetings. The panel heard testimony Tuesday from doctors and opponents to any legislation that would exclude males from female sports.
"The fact that men are able to athletically outperform women is not controversial to most people and rightly so," said Dr. Chad Carlson of Iowa's Stadia Sports Medicine. "It's important to point out however that even though injury risk is more difficult to quantify, allowing biological women to compete in women's sports does put women at some level of increased risk of injury."
Dr. Michael Shutt, southeast regional director for Lambda Legal, said categorical bans are a solution without a problem.
"Trans kids make up less than 2% of the population, meaning that trans girls make up less than 1%," Shutt said. "And sadly, very few of them play sports. Often politicians pushing for bans are unable to identify a single transgender athlete in their state."
Christopher Bruce, policy and advocacy director for the ACLU of Georgia, said changing the law to ban "transgender students" from participating in girls' sports was not just "morally indefensible" but unconstitutional.
"Every student, regardless of their gender identity, deserves the same rights, protections and opportunities under the law," Bruce told the committee. "Excluding transgender students from sports teams that align with their gender identity is a direct assault on their constitutional rights."
Committee Chairman Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, said the panel will meet at least once more before the 2025 legislative session begins.
The Biden administration recently tried to expand Title IX rules to include LGBTQ+ people. The rule is facing several court challenges. Twenty-six states have successfully stopped the rule from taking effect as the cases weave their way through the court system. In other states, a number of campuses are not required to implement the changes.
The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll shows that 45% disagree with the new policies and 40% approve. Noble Predictive Insights conducted the poll of about 2,500 likely voters.
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