Senate could vote soon on bill banning transgender athletes in girls’ sports

A bill to prevent males who identify as transgender from competing in girls’ sports could be voted on in the coming weeks in the U.S. Senate.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, took procedural steps this week to put the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act on the Senate calendar, setting it up for a future vote, according to The Hill.

The bill was filed by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, a former college football head coach. The senator sees the bill as a way to help President-elect Donald Trump fulfill his campaign promise to keep men out of women’s sports. 

“With President Trump’s resounding victory last November, the American people sent a clear message to Washington that they want to protect and preserve the original purpose of Title IX,” Tuberville wrote in an op-ed for OutKick. “One of the primary reasons President Trump won in a landslide is because he ran on the issue of saving women’s sports. Seventy percent of Americans agree: men don’t belong in women’s sports or locker rooms.” 

“I am welcoming my first granddaughter this spring,” he added. “I want for her what so many young women before her benefited from since Title IX became law in 1972. I want her to have the same opportunities available to her without having to worry about men competing against her, harming her, or invading her privacy.” 

The bill maintains that gender is “recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth,” and schools receiving federal funds would be prohibited from facilitating or sponsoring girls sports that allow males to participate, regardless of gender identity. 

The U.S. House passed the companion bill 219-203 in April 2023 along party lines, with no Democrats in support. However, the bill never came up for a vote in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate. 

Since then, however, Reps. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, and Tom Suozzi, D-New York, have sided with Republicans against males competing in women’s sports, an indication the bill may now garner bipartisan support. 

Moulton even said the liberal position cost his party votes in the 2024 election. 

“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Moulton told the New York Times. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.” 

Even with some House Democrats now taking this stance, it’s unclear whether the bill will receive 60 votes in the Senate. 

In the past two years, transgender-identifying males have won girls’ track state championships in at least seven states: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. In other sports, they have also injured girls, won Most Valuable Player awards and made all-state teams.