Texas governor signs bill restricting transgender student athletes News
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Texas governor signs bill restricting transgender student athletes

Texas Governor Greg Abbott Monday signed HB 25 into law, which prohibits transgender athletes from participating on sports teams that do not align with the sex that they were assigned at birth.

The law claims to “[redress] past discrimination against girls in athletics on the basis of sex and [promote] equality of athletic opportunity between the sexes under Title IX” by prohibiting transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports in public schools. According to the law, “[t]he purpose of this Act is to further the governmental interest of ensuring that sufficient interscholastic athletic opportunities remain available for girls to remedy past discrimination on the basis of sex.”

The law requires that a student participate in sports which align with the sex designated on their birth certificate, which is only “correctly” stated if it was “entered at or near the time of the student’s birth” or corrected shortly afterwards due to a “scrivener or clerical” error.

The White House has criticized the law as “hateful,” recognizing that it creates new opportunities for discrimination against transgender individuals. According to White House spokesperson Ike Hajinazarian: “This hateful bill in Texas is just the latest example of Republican state lawmakers using legislation to target transgender kids — whom the president believes are some of the bravest Americans — in order to score political points.” 

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