North Carolina lawmakers in both houses have introduced bills that would place restrictions on transgender athletes.
Currently, the N.C. High School Athletic Association allows teens who identify as transgender to play sports based on their gender identification. The proposed legislation would change that.
Both of the bills have dozens of Republican sponsors who want N.C. to join at least 20 other states to ban transgender students from sports based on gender identity.
The Senate bill says sports teams must be designated as “males, men, or boys;” “females, women, or girls;” or “coed or mixed.”
“Interscholastic athletic activities designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex,” SB 636, titled “School Athletic Transparency,” reads in part. “Sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
HB 574, titled the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” like the corresponding Senate bill, states athletic teams or sports designated for females, women or girls shall not be open to male students.
Both bills state participants are designated by their biological sex and genetics at birth.
“Athletic teams or sports designated for males, men, or boys shall not be open to students of the female sex unless there is no comparable female team for a particular sport and the sport is not a contact sport,” the proposed House bill reads in part.
Republicans have scheduled a news conference Thursday to discuss the bills.
The current NCHSAA rules that allow transgender student-athletes to participate is a lengthy process, but one the policy states allows all students to compete, “on a level playing field in a safe, competitive, and friendly environment, free of discrimination.”
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