Last Updated on February 11, 2020
A new bill in Idaho is set to prohibit biological male athletes from competing in girls sports and vice versa.
The controversial topic of trans male athletes competing against biological women has gripped media attention in the past few years, beginning with MMA fighter Fallon Fox.
Later, Australian handball player Hannah Mouncey–boasting a hulking stature over biological female opponents–also captured international headlines.
Girls have even petitioned against the inclusion of trans athletes in sports over an unfair natural competitive advantage.
Rep. Barbara Ehardt (Republican – Idaho Falls) introduced a bill which seeks to segregate male and female athletes according to their chromosomes, banning either sex from competing in the opposite sex’s sport–regardless of their gender identity, according to National Review.
The bill, which Rep. Ehardt claims to have been working on for around a year and a half, does not aim to single out trans high school student, but to stand up for girls.
Despite her intentions, she has been labeled transphobic for her bill.
Speaking to East Idaho News, Rep. Ehardt said:
“Boys and men will not be able to take the place of girls and women in sports because it’s not fair. We cannot physically compete against boys and men. The inherent biological, scientific advantages that boys and men have over girls and women, even if they were to take hormones, even if they were to spend a couple of years on estrogen, that’s not going to replace the inherent biological advantages that boys and men have.”
Idaho now joins five other states–Georgia, Missouri, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Washington–in proposing bills banning trans athletes from competing in sports designated for the opposite biological sex.
South Dakota recently failed to pass a bill criminalizing medical assistance for physically reaffirming underage transgender patients’ gender identify.
Georgia lawmakers also proposed a similar bill designed to felonize medical assistance in gender reassignment treatments for minors.
