I'm lighting a beacon, and I hope you'll light another and another and another!
All you have to do is write an email to your senator or (gulp) calling them?
Relax. Email is fine!
Please tell your senators to oppose HR 734, the federal trans sports ban. Find your Rep's contact information and tell them that you oppose HR 734 and they should too!
Why does this matter so much?
The language in this bill sets a dangerous precedent by defining sex based solely on reproductive biology and genetics at birth. If they get away with this, if we let them set this precedent it makes it so much easier for them to take the next step towards isolating and targeting trans people. It will erode the rights of trans people and the ways that they can legally protect themselves. This is a play lifted directly out of Hitler's playbook. Please don't let them do this!
They're pretending this is about "protecting women and girls" but this bill is a direct attack on the LGBTQ+ community and poses significant threat to their rights and well-being.
Research has shown that participation in sports is crucial for the mental and physical well-being of all youth, including LGBTQ+ individuals. Denying a child the opportunity to participate in sports can lead to increased rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide. Sports participation is correlated with higher academic achievement and self-esteem.
Studies have shown that inclusive policies that allow transgender individuals to participate in sports according to their gender identity do not harm cisgender athletes. Instead, these policies promote fairness, equality, and the well-being of all athletes.
What can you do?
Email (or call if that's your jam) your senator. Look up who they are and how to contact them:
Enter your address to find and contact your federal, state, county and local elected representatives
Then tell them to oppose HR 734! The message can be that simple. Say "I oppose HR 734 and I want you to oppose it on my behalf!"
If you want to say more and are stuck for inspiration, maybe check out what the Congressional Equality Caucus had to say about it: Congressional Equality Caucus Denounces House Passage Of H.R. 734, The “Politics Over Participation Act” | Congressional Equality Caucus
Or what the National Women's Law Center said: Letter from Women’s and Girls’ Rights Organizations Opposing H.R. 734 - National Women's Law Center
Or Pro, Olympic, and Paralympic athletes have to say about it: Pro, Olympic and Paralympic Athletes Sign Open Letter Against HR734 - Athlete Ally
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced that she will soon be voting for a bill to ban transgender student-athletes from participating in school sports, and she called the student-athletes “trans terrorists” for wanting to play sports.
“This week, I’ll be voting for H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023,” she wrote. “I’m proud to cosponsor [Rep. Greg Steube’s (R-FL)] bill to ensure women are fully protected by Title IX by making sure biological men are never competing against women in sports.”
Graham said some of Greene’s words were “irresponsible.” She did not respond with calm reason to prove him wrong.
“Trans terrorists want to beat women down, but I will never allow that to happen without putting up a fight.”
If you see the word “unhinged” in a dictionary, a picture of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) would be on it. In a Twitter rant on discussing how she would vote on anti-trans bill HR734, she called trans athletes who want to play sports corresponding to their gender identity “trans terrorists.”
U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) exploded on House Republicans during Wednesday’s debate on legislation that would ban all transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports in public schools across the country.
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Congressman Frost did not hold back his outrage.
“This morning I called a 12-year old in my district who is worried about their future as a non-binary kid in this country,” Frost told his House colleagues. “They should be playing and learning, not writing to their Congress member desperate to not lose their right to exist.”
“These are the priorities of the Republican majority,” Rep. Frost said. “Not addressing gun violence, rising medical bills, but violating the privacy of children. And I’m glad I get previews, I get special previews of what this Republican majority is going to try to do in this body because they’re simply taking bills that are being passed in Florida and across the South, horrible bills, and trying to get them passed up here.”
“This isn’t about a problem that needs a solution but about politicians looking for a target,” the Florida Democrat declared.
“We want freedom and liberty for all of our people and they want the government to be in children’s pants,” Frost added. “Disgusting.”
“History will not look kindly on this. Trans people will continue to fight for equity. We will be right by their side and we will win.”
Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D), during a debate on anti-trans sports bill HR734 on the House floor Wednesday, dropped a truthbomb by calling out the GOP’s sick intentions with anti-trans bills like these with this pithy quote: “We want freedom and liberty for all of our people and they want the government to be in children’s pants.”
The House passed a bill on Thursday that would bar transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex student athletes from participating in school sports.
Josh Israel at American Independent:
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would require that schools that receive federal funding discriminate against transgender kids who want to play amateur sports 219 to 203. Every present Republican voted in favor and every Democrat voted against the bill.
H.R. 734, titled the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, would define sex "based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth" and would deny federal Title IX funding and other assistance to any entity that permits "a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls."
According to the Congressional Equality Caucus, practically it would mean transgender girls, intersex kids, and nonbinary students would not be able to compete in sports matching their gender identity and could force cisgender women to undergo inspections to prove they are really female.
The bill's lead sponsor, Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube, argued in a Wednesday floor speech that transgender and intersex people do not exist, citing Bible verses and old dictionaries.
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Geneticists have disputed claims that transgender athletes have an unfair advantage. Dr. Eric Vilain of the University of California, Irvine, told NPR on April 9: "Some are making the argument that the difference between boys and girls should translate directly into concluding that there will be the same difference between trans and cisgender girl athletes. But there is no good evidence for this, in part because many cases are going to be different, some having undergone blocking of puberty at different ages."
[...]
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association have consistently affirmed that transgender people exist; they oppose bills like this one, which they say are harmful because they increase stigma and exclude kids who are vulnerable to depression and suicide from activities that positively impact mental health.
The House passed anti-trans bill HR734 219-203 on a party-line vote. This hot garbage bill is thankfully dead in the Senate.
HR734, deceitfully known as the "Protection of Women and Girls In Sports Act", bans transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex athletes from playing in competitions aligned with their gender identity.
This transphobic bill does NOTHING to protect women's sports, despite what the bill's backers wrongly claim.
The GOP is engaging in an all-out attack on transgender Americans through legislation in the statehouses, and they're moving their fight to Congress.
Nathalie Baptiste at HuffPost:
As the Republican Party has launched a major offensive against transgender Americans as part of a broader culture war over the past several months, most of the action played out in statehouses across the country. But with the GOP now in charge of the House of Representatives, the battle has moved to Washington, D.C.
On Wednesday, the U.S. House Committee on the Education and the Workforce held a hearing on two bills that perfectly encapsulates the Republican Party’s supercharged focus on targeting transgender youth.
HR 734, the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act, a bill that seeks to ban trans girls from participating in sports, and HR 5, the Parents Bill of Rights Act, legislation that calls for parents to have a greater say in what educators teach and strips LGBTQ youth of the right to speak to school staff without parental notification.
Hundreds of anti-trans bills have already been introduced on the state level, with many becoming law. However, these bills introduced on the federal level signal a new phase in which the conservative movement wants to make attacking transgender people a nationwide project. There isn’t a Senate nor a president that would approve these assaults — for now. But that could change in less than two years.
While Democrats came to the hearing prepared with research, statistics and anecdotal evidence from LGBTQ people, the GOP offered talking points that could have been lifted from your average right-wing Facebook group commenter.
Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) repeatedly suggested that the Biden administration was seeking to “erase women,” apparently by starting with letting trans girls play sports on teams that match their gender identity. Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) posited that he was happy that the hearing was public so that Americans could see that Democrats “didn’t believe that God created the science of sex.”
Meanwhile, Democrats pointedly noted that these bills were a part of the GOP’s ongoing cultural war on anyone not white, straight, conservative and cisgender.
“This is just a false sense of moral panic being ginned up by a political party that seeks to use trans kids as pawns to gain power,” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Ca.) said.
These GOP bills are not responding to issues of national concern but to outrages of their own making.
Last year, the Biden administration proposed changes to Title IX, legislation that bans sex-based discrimination in schools and universities, that would extend protections to LGBTQ students. The White House, however, did not address whether or not this explicitly meant that this change would include allowing trans athletes to participate in sports with teams that match their gender identity. The Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act is a direct reaction to that proposal — even though no changes to Title IX have been made.
The one-page bill stipulates that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” However, it does not explain how schools should determine a student’s reproductive biology.
The proposal, though vague, sets out to exclude transgender athletes from school sports. Put simply, it’s discrimination. Not only does it fly in the face of the purpose of team sports, but it also weaponizes the federal government against a minuscule portion of the population already at higher risk for mental health issues, including depression and suicidal ideation.
There are only about 50 openly transgender athletes participating in college-level sports. Acknowledging this number, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said, “It is ludicrous to suggest that such a handful of athletes... justifies national Congressional action.”
But the GOP says the bill is necessary to protect women and girls in sports, even though the bill doesn’t do anything to address the real problems in women’s sports — pay disparities, harassment and discrimination.
The other bill discussed at the hearing is another idea popular in conservative circles.
Popularized in places like Florida and Virginia, parental rights have become a catch-all for policies that seek to inject conservative dogma into public schools, remove books that Republican politicians don’t like, and ultimately, undermine the public school system to push charter schools and private schools—to line their pockets.
The Parents Bill of Rights Act is more substantial than the anti-trans bill. Democrats were concerned with provisions that called for disseminating lists of library books to all parents.
While the Republicans framed it as transparency, conservative parents across the country have been leading the charge on book bans by alleging that books about LGBTQ issues as “inappropriate” or “pornography.” They’ve successfully got school districts to remove books, and a federal bill like this would only empower more parents.
Another concerning provision of the bill would require school officials to disclose any private conversations they had with students. Again, the GOP posits this is a crucial part of the rights of parents, but it completely disregards why a transgender student might be out at school but need privacy from their parents, like in cases of abuse.
It’s unlikely that this pair of bills will become law. But with the GOP now in control of the House, the party has made it clear that bills like these that target LGBTQ people and cater to their most fervent supporters are at the top of their agenda. Despite the myriad issues facing the American people, the GOP is making it clear: Attacking trans people is their top priority.
The assault on transgender rights and the LGBTQ+ community more broadly is now going national, thanks to the GOP majority in the House. HR5 (essentially a nationwide “don’t say gay” bill, Parents Bill Of Rights Act) and HR734 (anti-trans sports bill, ”Protecting “ Women and Girls In Sports Act) are only the beginning.
God forbid if the GOP takes full control of the government. If that happens, a wholesale elimination of LGBTQ+ rights will happen.
See Also:
Vox: The GOP’s coordinated national campaign against trans rights, explained
A U.S. House committee will consider the bill Wednesday.
Trudy Ring at Advocate:
The Congressional Equality Caucus and others are condemning an anti-transgender sports bill that the House Committee on Education and the Workforce will consider Wednesday.
The committee announced Monday that it had scheduled the bill, House Resolution 734, for markup Wednesday. Markup means the committee will review the text of a bill, decide if amendments are needed, and vote on whether to send it to the full House.
HR 734, introduced by Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Steube of Florida, would make it a violation of Title IX for recipients of federal financial assistance to allow transgender girls or women to participate in girls’ and women’s athletic programs. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is the federal law banning sex discrimination in education.
“This bill would effectively ban all trans girls and trans women from participating on school sports teams, depriving them of an important opportunity to be part of their school community, learn sportsmanship, and challenge themselves,” says a press release from the Equality Caucus, made up of LGBTQ+ and allied members of Congress. Eighteen states have adopted laws to this effect, and HR 734 would take this nationwide.
The chairs of the Equality Caucus and the Democratic Women’s Caucus both denounced the bill, and they were joined by the president of the National Women’s Law Center.
“There are plenty of pressing issues facing both our education system and girls’ and women’s sports, such as teacher shortages and poor pay and a lack of resources and sexual harassment respectively. Rather than addressing any of these issues, anti-LGBTQI+ Republicans on this Committee will spend their first legislative markup voting to ban trans kids from participating in sports,” Equality Caucus Chair Mark Pocan said in the release. “This is not about girls’ and women’s sports; it’s about attacking trans kids. This sports ban is just the opening salvo in their larger efforts to limit the rights of and demonize the LGBTQI+ community, and the Equality Caucus will do everything it can to defeat it.”
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In announcing the markup, Foxx issued a statement saying, “The Biden administration is orchestrating a radical culture shift in America’s schools that is fundamentally changing what students are exposed to in the classroom and on the field. We’ve learned that prolonged school closures have set students back years in learning and development, yet the Left is more focused on peddling an agenda that silences parents’ voices and allows biological males to compete in women’s sports. By putting forth legislative measures that create a Parents Bill of Rights and protect women’s sports, Republicans are making good on our promise to establish a future that is built on freedom, where a child’s academics are put first and parents have a say in in their children’s curriculum.”
The Parents Bill of Rights, similar to legislation considered in many states, requires school districts to make information about lessons accessible to parents, along with a list of books in school libraries. It does have the potential to be used against LGBTQ-inclusive materials. But its chief sponsor, Republican Julia Letlow of Louisiana, has said it will simply “ensure parents always have a seat at the table when it comes to their child’s education.”
In introducing the trans-exclusionary sports bill last month, Steube said in a press release, “Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports is a complete affront to the hardworking women and girls who have spent their lives training to achieve their dreams. It’s simple: biological males have no place in women’s sports. Last Spring, Sarasota’s own, Emma Weyant, was robbed of her NCAA Championship in the 500 Freestyle by a biological male, Lia Thomas. Floridians and Americans across the country are rightly outraged at what has become of women’s sports. We’ve seen time and time again how the far left only favors fairness when it aligns with their woke agenda. That’s why today, I’m pleased reintroduce legislation that ensures women and girls a fair playing field in competitive sports.”
HR734 is an anti-trans bill that would ban trans people playing in sports aligned with their gender identity instead of their gender assigned at birth nationwide.
Bills that ban trans women from women's sports are NOT about "fairness" or "protecting women's sports", but pure mean-spirited malice against the trans community.
