Ohio House passes bill that would ban transgender female athletes from playing female-only sports

The Ohio House passed a bill late Wednesday night that would ban transgender girls and women from participating in high school and college athletics across the state.

The ‘Save Women’s Sports Act,’ or House Bill 61, wasn’t supposed to be on the schedule for legislators originally, according to our news partners at WCPO in Cincinnati. Republican representatives added the the language as an amendment to House Bill 151 last minute.

According to the Ohio Legislature, House Bill 151 would revise the state’s Teacher Residency Program and try to reduce state control in schools.

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The ‘Save Women’s Sports Act’ would require schools, state institutions of higher education and private colleges to designate separate single-sex teams and sports for each sex.

State Representative Jena Powell (R-Arcanum), a primary sponsor of House Bill 61, said in a statement that bill was a “fairness issue for women.”

“This bill ensures that every little girl who works hard to make it on a podium is not robbed of her chance by a biological male competing against her in a biological female sport,” Powell said.

State Rep. Rich Brown (D-Canal Winchester) told WCPO that this was “not a real problem.”

“This is a made-up, ' let’s feed red meat to the base’ issue,” Brown said

The Equality Ohio and the Ohio High School Athletic Association report there is only one transgender girl currently participating in high school athletics in the state

Under the bill, if a participant’s sex is disputed, the participant will have to establish their sex by presenting a statement from a doctor indicating the participant’s sex based upon:

• The participant’s internal and external reproductive anatomy
• The participant’s normal endogenously produced levels of testosterone
• An analysis of the participant’s genetic makeup

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The bill would also prohibit the state or any organization from processing “a complaint, begin an investigation, or take any other adverse action against a school or school district for maintaining separate single-sex interscholastic athletic teams or sports.” The bill also outlines legal paths for those who violate the act.

Maria Bruno, legislative policy director for Equality Ohio, told WCPO that having the bill added last minute to an unrelated bill was a “slap in the face” to the LBGTQ community.

“I know that there are a lot of folks in the LGBTQ community who are sitting there asking themselves, ‘What did I do to them? because they keep coming after me’ and I can’t blame them for having that perspective,” Bruno said.

The state Legislature won’t meet again to potentially discuss this bill until after recess — which is in November, according to WCPO.

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