Youngkin, GOP lawmakers push for transgender sports ban

Republican lawmakers, joined by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, Attorney General Jason Miyares and student athletes, gathered on Wednesday to support legislation that would bar transgender students from participating in school sport teams inconsistent with their biological sex.

The proposed legislation in both the House and Senate would mandate that students’ biological sex be verified by a physician’s statement and restrict female sports teams to students whose birth certificates list them as female at birth.

While organizations like the Virginia High School League (VHSL) and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCCA) already have policies regulating transgender athlete participation, proponents of the measure aim to ban such participation entirely.

Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer and now a political activist, defended the legislation, arguing that concerns about invasive exams are misplaced. “As an athlete, I can tell you, you have to have [a physical exam] to even be able to play the sports,” Gaines said.

A former Olympic trials qualifier, Gaines rose to prominence in 2022 after tying for fifth place with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas during a high-profile competition. Thomas made history as the NCAA’s first openly transgender woman athlete, competing on the women’s swim team. Though she’d initially swam for the men’s team, Thomas had met NCCA requirements by taking over a year off and undergoing hormone therapy.

Gaines, however, has criticized such participation, claiming it creates an unfair playing field for cisgender women athletes. She has toured the country advocating for state and federal legislation aimed at restricting transgender athletes from competing on women’s sports teams.

Also standing alongside lawmakers and Gaines at Wednesday’s event were members of Liberty University’s swim and dive team and Roanoke College’s swim team. Roanoke’s team previously made headlines after rejecting a prospective transgender team member and later appearing with President-elect Donald Trump on stage during a Virginia campaign rally.

Virginia’s proposal is part of a broader national trend, as numerous state legislatures have introduced similar bills targeting transgender participation in sports. A Republican-backed bill addressing the issue passed the U.S. House last week, though such measures must clear both congressional chambers before being signed into law.

In a related development, a U.S. District Court recently struck down President Joe Biden’s Title IX changes aimed at protecting transgender students, ruling that the U.S. Department of Education had violated teachers’ rights by requiring the use of transgender students’ names and pronouns. Miyares was part of a multi-state coalition challenging the policy.

Reflecting on the current legislative efforts, Miyares noted, “If I was to tell you even 10 years ago that it would be necessary to legislate that biological males should not be playing with those sports games, I would argue most nobody in this room would actually believe this would be necessary. But alas, here we are.”

Some Republican lawmakers argue that allowing transgender girls and women to participate in sports designated for cisgender women creates unfair advantages.

Earle-Sears, Virginia’s first woman lieutenant governor, likened the situation to undoing hard-fought progress for women. “It was not broken to repair it,” she said, referencing her role in breaking the proverbial glass ceiling.

Issues surrounding policies for transgender and nonbinary students have become a central focus for Republican lawmakers and activists in recent years.

Before Youngkin’s 2021 election, local school boards across Virginia pushed back against policies implemented by former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam.

However, with Democrats holding majorities in both legislative chambers at the time, GOP efforts to roll back protections or limit access for transgender and nonbinary students failed to gain traction.