Education Secretary Miguel Cardona refused to define what a woman is during a committee meeting this week.
“I’m here to talk about the budget and if you’d have a question about the budget, I’d be happy to respond,” he said, in part.
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The Georgia Senate passed a bill protecting women’s sports by 33 to 21 on Tuesday that would prevent biological males from unfairly competing in women’s and K-12 girls’ sports. The bill awaits transfer to the House for continued discussion.
HB 1104 seeks to safeguard “students from harm” and maintain “competitive fairness” in school sports by requiring athletes to compete in activities based on the gender listed on their birth certificate. The bill states that local schools may have “separate teams for members of each sex where selection for such teams is based upon competitive skill, competitive fairness, student safety or the activity involved is a contact sport.”
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A new poll finds that by a margin of nearly 3 to 1, respondents don’t think that it should be legal to provide minors with puberty blockers, drugs, and/or surgery to transition from one sex to the other. And by an even bigger margin, better than 7 to 1, respondents said that biological males who “identify” as female should not be permitted to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.
The Rasmussen Survey, conducted March 6 and 7 among 1,000 registered voters, also found that only 10% had ever introduced themselves using “preferred pronouns,” while fewer than half of those polled, 45%, had ever met someone who used their personal preferred pronouns to introduce themselves.
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A federal judge decided Thursday to temporarily block enforcement of an Idaho law meant to bar biological males from using female restrooms.
Senate Bill 1100, which was signed by Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little, went into effect July 1 and required schools to have two separate bathrooms, one for each biological sex, and allowed students to sue the school for up to $5,000 for each transgender person who is found to be using a bathroom that does not match their biological sex, according to the law. Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal activist group, sued to block the law on July 7, arguing the law violates the premise of the Equal Protection Clause and will cause harm to transgender persons, according to the lawsuit.
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House Republicans voted Thursday to pass the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” the latest salvo in the ongoing battle over transgender athletes.
The legislation would ban schools that receive federal funding, which is nearly all schools, from allowing biological males to compete in sports designated for women and girls.
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Conflict and distrust between athletes has shaken the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team as transgender swimmer Lia Thomas dominates the sport at the national level, according to Sports Illustrated.
Several people affiliated with the team spoke to Sports Illustrated under the condition that their names not be used, the outlet said. “I’m not about to be labeled as transphobic,” one swimmer reportedly said.
Team leadership has supported Thomas competing against women, and the school’s athletic director told female swimmers who were upset about competing against a biological male to consider going to therapy through the campus counseling program, according to Sports Illustrated.
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Alaska Airlines fired flight attendants for questioning its support of a proposed federal law that would open women’s spaces to biological males, according to complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Their union, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, allegedly refused to defend their Title VII employment rights against religious discrimination during the proceeding and “disparaged” the employees’ Christian beliefs.
The Seattle-based air carrier, which once decorated a plane with the logo of Nirvana’s first music label Sub Pop, did not respond to queries from Just the News about the allegations and why employees shouldn’t fear official retaliation for expressing their views.
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President Joe Biden’s administration and the Department of Justice are reportedly preparing to challenge bills banning biological males from women’s sports, multiple sources told the Daily Beast.
“We are having conversations with the Biden administration about additional actions that they should be taking as it relates to anti-LGBTQ bills that we’re seeing in these states,” Human Rights Campaign (HRC) president Alphonso David told the Daily Beast. “But we want to make sure we don’t lose sight of how important those words are, and how important his early actions have been to support and protect LGBTQ people throughout the country.”
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The governor of Kansas has vetoed a bill that would have banned biological males from participating in women’s sports.
Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the “The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” Thursday, saying in a news release that the legislation “sends a devastating message that Kansas is not welcoming to all children and their families, including those who are transgender — who are already at a higher risk of bullying, discrimination, and suicide,” according to local outlet KMBC.
“As Kansans, we should be focused on how to include all students in extracurricular activities rather than how to exclude those who may be different than us,” Kelly said. “Kansas is an inclusive state and our laws should reflect our values. This law does not do that.”
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