BURSTGeorgia lawmakers on Monday sent legislation to bar transgender student-athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is expected to sign the measure into law.
Georgia’s Senate Bill 1 would require middle schools, high schools and colleges to restrict participation in sports and access to multioccupancy facilities like restrooms and locker rooms on the basis of students’ “reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” It employs narrow definitions of male and female that are based on an individual’s capability to produce either “human sperm” or “human ovum.”
Also known as the “Riley Gaines Act,” named after the conservative activist who regularly campaigns against the inclusion of transgender girls in sports, the bill easily cleared both chambers of the state Legislature with support from Republicans and Democrats.
“Such a tremendous honor. There are few causes more worthy than protecting opportunities for the next generation,” Riley Gaines wrote on the social platform X after Georgia state House lawmakers passed the bill Monday. The lower chamber passed the measure in a 100-64 vote, with three Democrats voting with all Republicans to send it to Kemp’s desk.
Another “Riley Gaines Act” applying rigid definitions of male and female in state code became law this month in West Virginia.
In a statement on Monday, Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns (R) said the Legislature in passing the bill “sent a clear message — biological men are not welcome in girls’ sports or spaces here in Georgia.” The state’s Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R) called the measure’s success in the general assembly “a historic step toward achieving a critical goal for this session.”
Jones, along with Gaines, attended a signing ceremony in Washington in February for one of President Trump’s executive orders to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.
Georgia’s state Legislature, which is controlled predominantly by Republicans, in 2022 adopted a similar law creating a commission with the authority to ban transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity. The Georgia High School Association, the state’s governing body for high school sports, passed a rule the same year mandating students’ participation in athletics will be determined by their original birth certificate.
LGBTQ and civil rights groups have largely opposed efforts to restrict or ban transgender athletes from participating on sports teams that best align with their gender identity, alleging they discriminate against trans young people and open the door to abuse. In January, House Democrats dubbed a GOP-backed measure to ban trans athletes from girls’ and women’s athletics nationwide the “Child Predator Empowerment Act.”
At least 25 states since 2020 have enacted laws barring transgender athletes from competing on teams that match their gender identity. Four of those laws — in Idaho, West Virginia, Utah and Arizona — are blocked by federal court orders.