Texas bill restricting transgender student athletes’ sports participation heads to Gov. Greg Abbott

AUSTIN (Texas Tribune) — A bill that would restrict transgender student athletes from playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity is heading to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk after the Texas House accepted Senate amendments to the legislation in a 76-61 vote Sunday afternoon.

The legislation is now primed to become law, after the state Senate voted 19-12 on Friday to pass House Bill 25, authored by state Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, and the House voted to concur on Sunday. The Senate floor vote followed a swiftly held committee meeting where a 24-hour notice rule was suspended and the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee voted to advance the legislation. Under HB 25, students would only be permitted to compete on sports teams that correspond to the gender listed on their birth certificate that was assigned at or near the time of birth.

Friday’s vote is the fifth time this year the Senate has passed legislation targeting transgender youth participation in school sports. Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have pushed for the legislation during this year’s sessions. With HB 25 advancing, Texas joins at least five other states that have passed such legislation.

Critics of the legislation, including transgender advocates, say it unfairly targets transgender children and puts them and cisgender children at risk for being discriminated against.

Getting the bill through the House proved to be a major hurdle for lawmakers this year after legislation faltered in the lower chamber during the regular session and two subsequent special sessions, which included a House quorum break.

The birth certificate requirement under HB 25 goes further than rules from University Interscholastic League, which governs public school sports in Texas. According to UIL rules, gender is determined by a student’s birth certificate, though the governing body also accepts birth certificates that were modified to match a student’s gender identity. UIL has said the process for checking birth certificates is left up to schools and districts.

HB 25 would disallow acceptance of modified birth certificates by requiring a student’s gender to be determined by their original birth certificate unless their original certificate contained a clerical error. However, the process for how a birth certificate will be checked for whether it has been legally modified is unclear.

An amendment was added in the House, but later removed in the Senate, to the legislation that defined “biological sex” as “the physical condition of being male or female as ... (Read more)

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