New Hampshire House passes bill to protect women's sports
The New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban transgender athletes from playing in women's sports, from public schools through college.
The New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban male transgender athletes from playing in women’s sports, from public schools through college.
HB 1205 passed the New Hampshire House of Representatives on March 21 with a vote of 189-182, with one Democrat voting to advance the bill. According to The Hill, it’s expected to pass in the state Senate, which is led by Republicans.
The bill would require participation in sports at K-12 schools throughout the state, as well as public colleges, to be based on biological sex.
”An athletic team or sport designated for ‘females,’ ‘women,’ or ‘girls’ shall not be open to students of the male sex where selection for such teams is based upon competitive skill or the activity involved is a contact sport,” the legislation states.
[RELATED: IN THE NEWS: Transgender volleyball player may become the first male to receive women’s D1 scholarship]
The legislation would also open the door for students to sue schools based on violations of the bill that impacted them.
While it’s unclear if the state’s Republican Governor Chris Sununu would sign the bill, he has previously called it “dangerous” for transgender women and girls to compete against biological females.
“If it comes with too many other stipulations and too many restrictions that go far off field of what we’re talking about here, we could have an issue,” Sununu said during an interview with WMUR-TV.
The New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association allows athletes to compete in programs “consistent with their gender identity.”
”The NHIAA has concluded that it would be fundamentally unjust and contrary to applicable State and Federal Law to preclude a student from participation on a gender specific sports team that is consistent with the public gender identity of that student for all other purposes,” the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association policy currently states.
