Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, has officially signed a bill banning transgender girls from participating in female sports at Texas public schools.
Slammed as a 'hateful and targeted attack on transgender people' by LGBTQ+ and human rights organisation Equality Texas, the bill was signed on October 26 and will come into force in January of next year, Reuters reports.
It replaces a bill which previously allowed transgender girls to play sports with others of their gender, if they could provide an updated birth certificate demonstrating that they are legally declared to be female.
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From January, only birth certificates assigned at birth will be accepted, with the only exception being if a certificate had to be updated because of an administrative error.
This bill adds to the increasing amount of anti-transgender bills passed from Republican states across America, of which Texas has the most.
Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Montana and Tennessee have rolled out similar legislation mandating transgender girls to play sports in the gender they were assigned at birth.
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While the Governor has not publicly addressed the bill he signed, Valoree Swanson (the author of the bill) has been very outspoken about her motivations for creating it.
The State representative declared: “I have fought every political and legislative obstacle for an entire year, session after session, to protect the 332,000 girls in UIL sports, and I am overjoyed that Governor Abbott has signed my bill into law.”
This comes after mass Republican panic that transgender women and girls have a physical advantage, which will “destroy women’s sports” according to former President Donald Trump.
LGBTQ+ and human rights activists have pointed out however that the evidence to support this is dubious at best.
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Mary Emily O’Hara from GLAAD, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organisation stated that this latest bill prohibiting transgender people, stated that this bill was a 'trojan horse'.
They continued: “If you ask women athletes, the participation of trans women and girls is not an issue in women's sports. The issues are pay disparity, sexual abuse and harassment, and not enough media coverage.”
“Not enough funding. Women's sports have real challenges, none of which have anything to do with transgender girls."
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Ironically enough, the bill has contributed to making transgender girls, WHO ARE ALSO GIRLS, feel unsafe and unprotected, which directly contradicts the aim Swanson alleged motivated her to write this bill.
Speaking to The 19th, Lisa Stanton- the mother of transgender girl Maya Stanton, stated that since Texas’ latest bill, her daughter has experienced new levels of anxiety and fear.
She said: “Last night she had to sleep in my bed. She’s like, ‘Are we going to move? Why are they doing this to me? Why do they hate me?”
Maya also directly addressed the House of Representatives (which includes Swanson) before the bill was passed, pleading with the officials to not make it illegal for her to practice gymnastics with her friends.
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Her powerful speech, which mentioned that the bill made her feel like Texas was shouting at her to leave her own state, while being highly praised by many as extremely brave, was unable to sway Swanson and her colleagues who passed the bill 76-61.
Featured Image Credit: Alamy