Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law Thursday that requires college athletes to play on teams that align with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Under Senate Bill 15, which supporters have dubbed the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” transgender women will be required to play on men’s teams and transgender men will have to play on women’s teams.
Flanked by current and former collegiate athletes at the signing ceremony at the Capitol, Abbott said, “Women’s sports are being threatened.” He said it’s not fair for transgender women to compete against cisgender women for titles, competitions and athletic records.
“Women in Texas can be assured that the integrity of their sports will be protected in Texas,” he said.
The law creates an avenue for “injunctive relief” against public higher education institutions and college sports teams in Texas that violate the rules, and it would prohibit universities from retaliating against anyone for reporting violations. The law also would allow women to compete against men in college sports if a corresponding women’s team is not offered or available.
When potentially competing against out-of-state schools whose teams may have transgender athletes, university officials will need to make their own decisions, Abbott said Thursday.
Opponents of the legislation, including transgender Texans, have said it discriminates against a very small group of people who already face challenges with being included and feeling safe.
According to a limited list by Outsports, 36 openly transgender athletes nationwide have competed in college sports, including at community colleges and junior colleges, in the past decade. The list does not include any athletes who competed or are competing while attending a university in Texas.
The American-Statesman previously asked every four-year public university in Texas that participates in NCAA-sanctioned sports if they ever had a transgender athlete compete, and none said yes. Several schools did not respond to the Statesman’s requests.
Opinion: GOP lawmakers don’t care about women’s sports or the athletes who play them
‘Texas needs to be an example’
Jeri Shanteau, a former All-American collegiate swimmer at Auburn University, stood behind Abbott as he signed SB 15 into law Thursday.
Though Shanteau has never competed against a transgender athlete in college sports, she advocated for the bill because she said letting transgender women participate in female sports could harm competition.
“We need to make sure we are protecting female sports,” Shanteau said. “Texas needs to be an example.”
The bill signing came a day after the Texas attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education over transgender issues.
The lawsuit raises issue with a 2021 federal announcement that Title IX protections prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The attorney general’s office said the notice expanded the scope of Title IX and forces schools to “adopt ‘transgender’ ideology” or risk losing federal funds.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. Northern District Court of Texas and asks the federal court to declare the Education Department’s 2021 notice unlawful.
The notice in question determines that the federal Education Department “has long recognized Title IX protects all students, including students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, from harassment and other forms of sex discrimination.”
The notice was written to clarify and affirm the department’s stance, according to the listing in the Federal Register.
Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination at any K-12 or college-level school that receives federal funding.
The state attorney general’s office argues the federal department’s interpretation arbitrarily expands the application of Title IX.
“The guidance risks federal education funding for Texas colleges and universities as well as all Texas K-12 schools receiving any amount of federal funding by unlawfully asserting that these conceptions promoted by the extremist transgender movement are covered by Title IX protections,” according to a statement from the attorney general’s office.
“Under this doctrine, Texas schools would be investigated by the federal government for following Texas law,” the statement said.
Lawmakers’ push to place limits on transgender public college athletes this legislative session came two years after the Legislature passed similar restrictions for K-12 public schools.
