A panel of Georgia senators say the state should require that girls’ and women’s sports played at public schools only allow student-athletes to join teams according to the gender listed on their birth certificate.
The Senate Special Committee on Protecting Women’s Sports is expected to adopt five recommendations during its final hearing Friday, according to a draft shared with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The panel is expected to recommend changing state law so that student-athletes at public high schools and colleges must play on teams, dress, shower and use restrooms according to the gender on their birth certificate. The law would also apply to private institutions in games they play against those schools.
In addition, the panel is set to urge the Legislature to adopt additional rules to “ensure that the regulation of sports is based on promoting and preserving competitive fairness and protecting student safety.”
Georgia has been among the conservative states that have recently passed or proposed laws regulating transgender children and adults.
In 2023, the Georgia General Assembly passed a law banning doctors from giving certain medical treatments to transgender children.
The year before, Republican leadership in the House and Senate compromised on the issue of transgender sports. It tasked athletic associations with investigating whether there was a need to ban transgender girls from competing on girls’ sports teams. The Georgia High School Association quickly voted to require athletes to compete based on their biological sex, effectively banning transgender athletes from participating based on gender identification.
The state Senate panel on Friday is expected to recommend repealing the law that gave sports associations control of regulating transgender athletes.
“This is an issue that should be decided by the people’s elected representatives,” the recommendations are expected to state.
Lawmakers who support the effort, as well as activists who oppose it, say they are not aware of any transgender athletes playing sports in Georgia.
The panel of six Republicans and two Democrats spent more than seven hours across three meetings listening to testimony in recent months. They ultimately recommended changes that closely resemble legislation Republican senators tried to pass in the waning days of session earlier this year.
With encouragement from Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Education and Youth Chair Clint Dixon, a Buford Republican, in March tried to push through a bill containing a host of GOP red-meat issues, which included banning transgender athletes from playing sports or using restrooms that align with their gender identity. It passed the Senate but stalled in the House.
In the past, the House has been cool to taking up transgender legislation. But that is expected to change in the coming legislative session. Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican from Newington, recently said there is “nothing more important” than passing a law to “protect the integrity and fairness of girls’ sports at every level here in Georgia” next year.
Check back with AJC.com for updates to this article.
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