(C) Texas Tribune
This story was first published on Texas Tribune.org[1]
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The Blast: Third special session nears end, transgender athletes bill, new ERCOT board members
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Date: 2021-10

TRANSGENDER SPORTS BILL MOVES TO HOUSE FLOOR FOR VOTE

The Texas House will vote Thursday on legislation that would target transgender student athletes and prohibit them from participating on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.



On Wednesday, the House Calendars Committee voted 7-3 along party lines to move House Bill 25, authored by state Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, to the House floor, where House Speaker Dade Phelan has indicated such legislation would have enough votes to pass. Last week, the bill advanced out of the House Select Committee on Constitutional Rights and Remedies along party lines after hours of impassioned testimony against the bill from transgender children, their parents and other advocates.



“This is about fairness, it’s about women’s rights, it’s about holding your own and not going backwards in rights for women,” Swanson said at a news conference Wednesday, where she was joined by Republican lawmakers and other proponents of HB 25.



Medical professionals have largely debunked arguments that transgender athletes who are taking hormones have an advantage, with one study showing people taking hormones did not have a significant performance edge in distance running.



Legislation similar to HB 25 has faltered in the previous three legislative sessions this year, including the regular session, when legislation passed the Senate only to stall in the lower chamber. Last session, the bill never made it to the House floor after state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, chair of the House Public Education Committee, blocked it from advancing. A similar Senate version of HB 25 has been referred to his committee this session but hasn’t been taken up for a vote.



Under HB 25, students competing in interscholastic sporting events would be required to compete on teams that match their assigned gender listed on their birth certificate at or near the time of birth. Republicans argue the bill is designed to preserve girls sports and uphold Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination in educational settings on the basis of sex. However, advocates of transgender youth claim HB 25 is just another maneuver to target transgender children, a vulnerable population that has experienced a mental toll from numerous bills introduced in the legislature this year that have targeted them.



— Allyson Waller

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