Ga. bill banning trans girls from playing women’s sports closer to becoming law
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A Georgia Senate subcommittee met Wednesday to go over House Bill 267 that would ban trans girls from playing women’s sports in Georgia at school.
“Biological males should not compete against biological females,” said Representative Josh Bonner (R-Fayetteville).
“The approach by this bill is scientifically invalid and just not necessary,” said Dr. Jason Schneider.
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ions were on display at the capitol over the bill, also called the Riley Gaines Act for a University of Kentucky swimmer who competed for an NCAA championship at Georgia Tech and lost to a transgender swimmer.
“As the father of daughters that are female athletes, it’s incredibly important to make sure that any time any of our female athletes steps on a field, it’s a level playing field and that there’s not any unfair competitive advantage,” said Representative Bonner.
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Rep. Bonner presented his bill in front of a senate subcommittee on judiciary.
“What I love about these committee hearings, we do get to go deep into a bill and analyze the bill. We had great commentary and questions from the committee and great from the public as well,” said Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming), who is the chairman for the subcommittee.
Senators were able to question Rep. Bonner and the public was able to comment on the bill. Only one person came to speak in favor of it, while a long list of trans advocates came to speak against it.
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“It could be used to bar trans women from life saving domestic violence and rape crisis shelters, lines 317 to 322. It could impede trans Georgians from gaining employment, line 509,” said Dr. Schneider.
“It’s really hard to be a trans person in the United States and in Georgia right now. No one is transitioning for an athletic edge,” said Noel Heatherland with Georgia Equality.
“There’s no desire to cancel out anyone. The intent of the bill is to collect accurate data. And the best way to do that is to use defined, accurate ,” said Rep. Bonner.
The bill still has several committees to go through before the senate votes on it.
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