SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
transgender athletes
'Bigoted Folks' Love Trans Sports Ban, Says AOC—And So Do CEOs for the Diversion It Creates
"Los Angeles is on fire right now, and this is the number one priority this majority has," said the congresswoman.
Jan 14, 2025
While Republicans claimed a bill restricting transgender girls' participation in school sports was aimed at protecting "our culture and civilization" on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the legislation benefits the corporate class as it distracts from true life-threatening emergencies faced by communities across the country.
"Thank you for your concern about women for the first time that I've seen," said the New York Democrat on the House floor, noting that Republicans have consistently voted against the Violence Against Women Act and backed abortion bans that have stripped women of the ability to control their own bodies proven deadly.
But contrary to the GOP's claims that barring transgender girls and women from playing on sports teams that align with their gender will protect girls from assault, Ocasio-Cortez suggested, the biggest beneficiaries of the legislation include corporate executives whose companies do far more harm to American families than transgender athletes.
"I know who loves this bill," said the congresswoman. "Yes, bigoted folks love this bill. Assaulters love this bill. But also, CEOs love this bill. Because Los Angeles is on fire right now, and this is the number one priority this majority has."
The bill passed 218-206, with the entire Republican caucus supporting it and all but two Democrats voting no. If the legislation is signed into law, schools that receive federal funding would be barred from allowing transgender girls from playing on girls' sports teams.
Republicans have poured $111 million on political ads regarding the issue in the past year, as communities in the Southeast have suffered catastrophic hurricane damage and homelessness has soared by 18%.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) agreed with Ocasio-Cortez's comments about the distraction caused by the transgender sports bill.
"Republicans fearmonger about the trans community to divert attention from the fact they have no real solutions to help everyday Americans," said Bonamici. "Transgender students, like all students, they deserve the same opportunity as their peers to learn teamwork, to find belonging and to grow into well-rounded adults through sports."
Ocasio-Cortez added that the bill, which lacks an enforcement mechanism, would open the door to "genital examinations" of student athletes as it would force schools to confirm the sex assigned at birth of each member of a school sports team.
"What this also opens the door for is for women to try to perform a very specific kind of femininity for the very kind of men who are drafting this bill, and to open up questioning of who is a woman because of how we look, how we present ourselves, and yes, what we choose to do with our bodies," said Ocasio-Cortez.
The so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act was the subject of a letter signed by more than 400 civil society groups on Monday, who urged members of Congress to reject the "discriminatory proposal."
"Although the authors of the legislation represent themselves as serving the interests of cisgender girls and women, this legislation does not address the longstanding barriers all girls and women have faced in their pursuit of athletics," said the groups, led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "We firmly believe that an attack on transgender youth is an attack on civil rights."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Beyond Cruel': Ohio House GOP Overrides Veto of Bill Attacking Trans Kids
"To make matters worse, Ohio is now considering adopting sweeping new rules that would restrict the care that Ohio providers can provide to all transgender patients of all ages," one group noted.
Jan 10, 2024
In another blow to LGBTQ+ rights, Republicans in the Ohio House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn GOP Gov. Mike DeWine's recent veto of legislation that would ban gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth and prohibit them from playing on school sports teams that match their identity.
While announcing his veto of House Bill 68 last month, DeWine—who spoke with families that would be affected by the bill—said, "Many parents have told me that their child would not have survived, would be dead today, if they had not received the treatment they received from one of Ohio's children's hospitals."
Rights groups and impacted families similarly highlighted the stakes after the Ohio House's 65-28 vote on Wednesday, which is expected to be followed by a vote in the state Senate on January 24.
As The Columbus Dispatch reported:
Betty Elswick of Marysville traveled to Columbus on Wednesday to protest the vote with her 16-year-old son, Parker, who has been receiving hormone therapy for four months. Elswick said the family will likely leave Ohio if House Bill 68 becomes law so Parker can access the healthcare he needs.
"If this gets passed through, it's going to kill kids," Parker Elswick said.
"We are extremely disappointed that the Ohio House continued their crusade against transgender youth and their families by returning early for an emergency session to override the governor's veto on H.B. 68," declared the ACLU of Ohio. "This state-sponsored vendetta against some of Ohio's most vulnerable young people is beyond cruel."
"The ACLU of Ohio stands in solidarity with all transgender youth and their families," the organization stressed. "This measure may force families to leave the state, disrupting communities and other deep ties to Ohio's history and economy."
The ACLU of Ohio also noted Wednesday that "to make matters worse, Ohio is now considering adopting sweeping new rules that would restrict the care that Ohio providers can provide to all transgender patients of all ages."
"These proposed restrictions, if finalized, would make Ohio the most restrictive state in the country with respect to evidence-based healthcare, imposing disastrous burdens on providers untethered from any medical guidelines," the group warned. "Ohioans do not want government officials involved in private medical decisions, these matters should be reserved for parents, children, and doctors."
While DeWine won widespread praise for his veto, "late Friday, the governor announced a new executive order and a set of rules from the state's health department that could threaten access to gender-affirming care across the state, even for trans adults," MSNBC columnist Katelyn Burns, the first openly transgender Capitol Hill reporter, explained Wednesday.
"Trans people used to die from secretive, underground bottom surgeries, and health issues frequently popped up among those who got black-market hormones with self-prescribed dosages," Burns noted. "We must avoid returning to a world where trans people are forced to turn to dark-market providers for their lifesaving medical needs, and that means we must vigorously and vocally oppose DeWine's onerous government overreach into the private lives of trans people. The quality of transition care depends on it."
In addition to battling over gender-affirming healthcare and sports teams, Ohio Republicans are considering House Bill 183, which would prevent trans students at public K-12 schools and universities from using bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their identity.
During an Ohio House Higher Education Committee hearing for the bathroom bill on Wednesday, one of the sponsors, Rep. Beth Lear (R-61), used a Bible verse to justify the bill and suggested supporters of trans students should be executed.
"If I had a child who thought he was a bird, am I going to take him to a doctor who tells him the best thing to do is to let him explore being a bird?" Lear also said, according to The Enquirer. "And oh, by the way, there's a five-story building next door—why don't you jump off and see if you can fly?"
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio argued Wednesday that "trans people deserve equal accommodations. Going to the bathroom is a normal bodily function and trans people should be able to do so in the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity."
"Make no mistake—bathroom bills are part of a larger dehumanization campaign against the trans community," the group added. "There are so many other initiatives the Legislature could be focused on instead of perpetuating unnecessary surveillance and harm to the trans community."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Lives Will Be Saved': Ohio Gov. Vetoes Trans Youth Healthcare, Sports Bans
"Thank you to Gov. DeWine for listening to the people of his state and making the right decision for young trans Ohioans," said one advocate.
Dec 29, 2023
LGBTQ+ rights advocates on Friday praised Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine for vetoing a bill that would ban gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth and bar them from participating in school sports teams that match their identity.
"Ohio families don't want politicians meddling in decisions that should be between parents, their kids, and their doctors," said Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson in a statement.
"Instead, parents, schools, and doctors should all do everything they can to make all youth, including transgender youth, feel loved and accepted, and politicians should not be making it harder for them to do so," she added. "Thank you to Gov. DeWine for listening to the people of his state and making the right decision for young trans Ohioans."
Thanking DeWine on social media, ACLU of Ohio executive director J. Bennett Guess stressed that "lives will be saved because of this critically important veto!"
Also welcoming the veto, the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers said: "This is the result of advocacy of trans folks and their families, providers, and advocates. Thank you all for taking action. Our advocacy action steps continue. Now we need to contact our Ohio legislators to urge them not to overturn the veto."
Some Republican state lawmakers expressed disappointment with the governor's decision and teased an override effort. The Associated Pressreported Friday that "GOP lawmakers hold enough seats to override DeWine's veto, but if or when they would do so was not immediately clear. Both within and between chambers, Republican legislators have not been in lockstep this year."
Several GOP-dominated states have recently moved to restrict gender-affirming care, especially for minors. In 2021, then-Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed a healthcare ban targeting youth. State lawmakers overrode his veto, but a federal judge struck down the law in June. Earlier this week, another judge blocked a similar law in Idaho.
As for athletics, two dozen states have enacted laws or regulations preventing students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, often targeting trans girls, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Some of those bans are currently blocked—including one in Utah, where Republican Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed the bill last year but state lawmakers swiftly overrode the veto. Cox notably signed a ban on gender-affirming care for youth earlier this year.
After the Ohio Legislature passed House Bill 68 earlier this month, Nick Lashutka, president and CEO of the Ohio Children's Hospital Association, pointed out that "we do not perform any surgeries on minors for the condition of gender dysphoria."
"If this bill becomes law," he warned, "it will be devastating to kids and their families who are already at their most vulnerable and will place an insurmountable barrier between patients and their medical professionals for often lifesaving care."
DeWine, who visited children's hospitals and spoke with families before announcing the veto, echoed medical professionals on Friday. As The Washington Postreported:
"This bill would impact a very small number of Ohio's children. But for those children who face gender dysphoria, the consequences of this bill could not be more profound. Ultimately I believe this is about protecting human life," DeWine said Friday during a news conference announcing the decision. "Many parents have told me that their child would not have survived, would be dead today, if they had not received the treatment they received from one of Ohio's children's hospitals."
"These are gut-wrenching decisions that should be made by parents and should be informed by teams of doctors who are advising them," DeWine continued. "Were I to sign House Bill 68, or were House Bill 68 to become law, Ohio would be saying that the state, that the government, knows better what is medically best for a child than the two people who love that child the most: the parents."
The Columbus Dispatch noted that DeWine "said his administration will draft rules to ban surgery for patients under 18, collect data on transgender medical care for adults and children, and restrict pop-up clinics that don't provide adequate mental health counseling."
While welcoming the veto as "crucial" and "extraordinary," trans activist and content creator Erin Reed also highlighted the caveats, saying that "the most concerning aspect of Gov. DeWine's announcement was the potential for increased scrutiny of transgender adults in Ohio."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular