The Louisiana House of Representatives Thursday passed the controversial Senate Bill 156 requiring schools to designate athletic teams and sporting events based on the biological sex of the team members. The bill, which was sponsored by Republican Senator Beth Mizell and which had passed the Louisiana Senate earlier this month with a vote of 29-6, passed the House of Representatives with a vote of 78-19.

The passed bill enacts Chapter 7-A titled “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” inserting Sections 441-446 in Title 4 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950. Section 444 of the inserted chapter requires all intercollegiate, interscholastic or intramural athletic teams or sporting events sponsored by a school and which receive state funding to be expressly designated based upon biological sex into one of the following three categories: males, men, or boys; females, women, or girls; or coeducational, or mixed. The provision also states that athletic teams and sporting events “designated for females, girls, or women shall not be open to students who are not biologically female,” which, in effect, bans the participation of transgender female athletes either as part of an athletic team designated as a “female team” or in any sporting event designated as a “female sporting event.”

Section 446 states that the act of requiring a biological female student to compete against a biological male on a team which is otherwise designated for females, women, or girls shall amount to deprivation of athletic opportunity under the chapter as being inherently discriminatory, entitling such harmed biological female to an appropriate cause of action. The provision states the appropriate remedies as inclusive of but not limited to an injunctive relief, a protective order, a writ of mandamus or a prohibition, or declaratory relief to prevent any violation, or actual damages, reasonable attorney fees, and costs, as the case may be.

The bill now moves to Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards to be signed into law.