XPost: alt.politics.usa.congress, alt.transgendered, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh XPost: sac.politics, alt.society.liberalism
The House passed legislation Tuesday that would ban transgender athletes
from participating in women’s and girls’ sports at schools and
institutions receiving federal funds.
The bill, which would also amend federal law to say that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth," was approved largely along party lines in a 218 to 206 vote.
Only two Texas Democrats voted for the measure: Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., voted present, and no Republicans
opposed the measure.
The bill now heads to the Senate.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who sponsored the legislation, said it was aimed
at protecting women's sports.
"The distinction between men and women is clear and evident, and the
erasure of this division has been promulgated by those in the radical left
who seek to dismantle the core foundation of our society," Steube said on
the House floor before the vote. "We must never let our country and the American way of life surrender to this immoral ideology."
Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., the only woman in Congress who played Division
I college sports, said Republicans were using the measure to "inject
themselves into decisions they have no business making."
"I have long placed my trust in the governing bodies of sports — the
experts who have dedicated their lives to these games — to create fair and responsible rules for participation," Trahan said in floor remarks.
Trahan and other Democrats have referred to the bill as the "Child
Predator Empowerment Act," arguing that it puts at risk the safety of
children in schools and could expose them to questioning and inspection of their bodies.
The bill passed the House in the last Congress in April 2023 with no
Democratic support and did not advance in the Senate, which at the time
was controlled by Democrats. Republicans now hold the majority.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who last week upheld a ban barring
transgender people from using single-sex bathrooms that align with their
gender identities near the House floor, said Tuesday that Republicans
"have yet again stood up for women."
"I'm a Bible-believing Christian, I make no apology about that. But
whether you regard that as the truth or not, it’s also nature. It’s
biology," he said at a news conference after the vote.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-passes-bill-ban- transgender-student-athletes-womens-sports-rcna187703
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