ATLANTA — The Georgia Senate passed a bill that would restrict what sports transgender students can play. It also prevents sex education in school before seventh grade.
Supporters insist it’s a victory for women’s sports. Critics say it will marginalize transgender students.
“It protects the rights of women to compete against each other in athletic competition,” state Sen. Clint Dixon said.
Just last week, Dixon took a bill about student athlete mental health and tacked on several other bills including one to prevent transgender girls from competing in public school girls’ sports.
It also restricts where they can change clothes.
Dixon insisted such competition is inherently unfair to women athletes.
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“A person who has gone through puberty as a man and who has developed as a man should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports, no matter what gender identity he claims at that time,” Dixon said.
Dixon tacked those bills onto the existing bill without much public comment.
State Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes called it a “Frankenstein Bill” that only hurts transgender children.
“To marginalize and isolate transgender students, denying them the camaraderie and growth afforded by team sports and subject them to the indignity of being treated as outcasts in their own schools,” Parkes said.
State Sen. Derek Mallow insisted this was the Republican majority trying to sneak through a series of bills that didn’t make it past Crossover Day.
“To just tack something on like that at a very late hour is egregious, and I think it’s a disservice to Georgians who should have the ability to come and provide public comment and testimony by giving them an opportunity to do that,” Mallow said.
The bill now heads over to the House and with all the changes made to it, it may have a tough road.
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