Georgia leaders flew to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to be in the room as President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender girls and women from playing sports according to their gender identity.
Georgia Republicans in both chambers had already pledged to pass laws this year similar to what Trump’s executive order aims to do.
Here’s what you need to know about Trump’s executive order and how it impacts efforts in Georgia to regulate girls’ and women’s sports.
Credit: Greg Bluestein/AJC
Credit: Greg Bluestein/AJC
What does Trump’s executive order do?
Trump’s executive order would block federal funding to any school that allows transgender student-athletes to play in single-sex sports according to their gender identity.
Officials have also been asked to push for the implementation of international regulations around transgender student-athletes, including urging the International Olympic Committee to come in line with Trump’s order ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The day after Trump’s order, the NCAA announced it would require student-athletes to compete on teams according to the sex on their birth certificates.
How many transgender people are in Georgia?
According to a 2022 study by the law school at the University of California, Los Angeles, about 1.2% of Georgians between the ages of 13 and 17 identify as transgender, or about 8,500 minors. Another 48,700 Georgia adults aged 18 and up identify as transgender, which is 0.6% of the total adult population in the state.
Georgia was estimated to have about 10.9 million residents in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Can transgender girls participate in Georgia public high school sports?
No.
In 2022, Republican leadership 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 the sex on their birth certificate, effectively banning transgender athletes from participating based on gender identification. The policy does not regulate K-8 or college sports.
In 2023, the Georgia General Assembly passed a law banning doctors from giving certain medical treatments to transgender minors.
What laws are being pursued in Georgia?
Georgia’s Republican lawmakers say that allowing transgender girls to play on sports teams according to their gender identity creates an “uneven playing field.” They assert there are only two sexes and that “boys are boys and girls are girls.” They refer to transgender girls and women as boys and men, who they say have a biological advantage over girls and women in athletics and need to be kept off single-sex teams.
The Senate on Thursday passed Senate Bill 1, which would require children and adults at public K-12 schools and colleges to play sports and use restrooms and locker rooms according to the sex listed on their birth certificate. Private schools and colleges that compete against public institutions would also have to abide by the regulations outlined in the bill, if fully passed.
SB1 now heads to the House, where Republicans earlier this week introduced their version of the bill, House Bill 267.
Senators are also pursuing legislation that would ban doctors from prescribing minors with puberty blockers, removing a carve-out that was placed in the 2023 bill, and ban the state health insurance plan from covering gender-affirming care for adults and children.
What are opponents saying?
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Opponents of the efforts to ban transgender student-athletes say the bills are a solution in search of a problem. Transgender people make up around 1% of all Americans. Of those, very few participate in competitive sports, and even fewer transgender people compete at an elite level.
Transgender rights advocates say that legislation and conversation around the proposed regulations increase suicidal ideation in young transgender people. Studies have found that transgender people consider suicide at a rate exponentially higher than those who are not transgender.
Opponents also say they worry that laws targeting transgender people could lead to false claims being made against girls and women who don’t fit a certain image of femininity.
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