A Tennessee state legislator introduced a bill Monday that would require elementary and secondary school student-athletes to compete in sports based on their biological sex at birth.
In State Rep. Bruce Griffey’s (R-Paris) proposed HB 1572, any elementary or secondary school that violates this requirement would be “immediately ineligible to continue to receive public funds of any type from this state or a local government.”
“We are seeing more and more transgender athletes competing and posting victories in traditionally gendered sports competitions, and doing so to the detriment of girls and women biologically born female. Boys and men, due to testosterone levels, bigger bone structure, greater lung capacity, and larger heart size, have physical advantages in sports relative to girls and women,” he said in a statement emailed to The Tennessee Star.
Furthermore, Griffey said believes it is “fundamentally unfair” for biological girls who are competing for college scholarships to go up against biological males.
As a penalty for violating this law, a district attorney can bring civil action against a state or local official who intentionally violates this act can be subject to $10,000 penalty, vacating their position and not be able to hold a public office, school administration or principal positions.
This bill comes as a response to the “Equality Act” the House of Representatives passed in May. If this act becomes law, it would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to add gender identity and sexual orientation as protected statuses. The Republican-controlled Senate has not taken a vote on this issue.
“With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushing through passage in the U.S. House of Representative HR 5 – the Equality Act – that, among other things, creates a civil right for male athletes to self-identify as females in sports competitions, I believe it is important for states to take a stand. This is what I seek to do through the filing of House Bill 1572,” Griffey said.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Battleground State News. If you have any tips, email Zachery at zschmidt1717@gmail.com.