Indianapolis–A bill in Indiana that would prevent transgender women from participating in women’s sports at colleges was approved by a committee Wednesday morning.
House Bill 1041, authored by Republican Rep. Michelle Davis, seeks to expand the state’s previous ban on transgender girls in K-12 sports to college athletics. It would require teams to be male, female, or coeducational.
The measure also requires colleges and universities to establish grievance procedures for students or parents to file claims if a team violates the gender restrictions.
Indiana cannot tell schools outside of the state who is allowed to play on their teams. But, under this bill, the state would require those teams to say if one of their athletes was a transgender woman.
Davis says this bill ensures fairness in collegiate sports and protect opportunities for female athletes by maintaining a level playing field.
The ACLU of Indiana is against the bill. They released the following statement on their website:
This bill would prohibit transgender women from participating in women’s sports at public and private colleges – expanding Indiana’s current K-12 ban. In addition, the bill opens up Indiana colleges to lawsuits by people who suspect that a transgender woman is participating in violation of the ban.
Already discriminatory, this bill was made unnecessary by recent actions at the federal level and a change in national policy at the NCAA. Passage of the bill will not change a single thing for Indiana college athletes. Bills like HB 1041 and policies like the NCAA’s actually result in harassment of women athletes who look like they don’t belong.
Given that this bill is unnecessary, the only logical motivation for is consideration is to send a message to Transgender Hoosiers – you don’t belong here. The ACLU of Indiana opposes this bill because it is terrible public policy and because we know the contributions that transgender Hoosiers make every day in our state. They deserve the opportunity to fully live their lives, including as competitive athletes.
After 90 minutes of discussion, the bill was approved by the House Education Committee by a vote of 12-1. It moves to the full chamber for further consideration.