(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) Republicans in the Ohio legislature have engineered the passage of a bill that would prevent male-to-female transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports in high school and college, according to ABC News 5.
The bill was passed over Democratic objections after Republicans attached HB 61 as a supplement to another bill—HB 151—that has to do with Ohio’s Teacher Residency Program, ABC reported.
Finally got Sub HB 151, which includes Ohio's "Save Women's Sports Act." This passed close to midnight.
Section C has the verification process if accused of being trans.
– External and internal genitalia evaluation
– Testosterone level check
– Genetic makeup test@WEWS pic.twitter.com/ZhtGOcx4DY— Morgan Trau (News Reporter) (@MorganTrau) June 2, 2022
HB 61 would enact the Save Women’s Sports Act, which would “require schools, state institutions of higher education, and private colleges to designate separate single-sex teams and sports for each sex.”
The bill also includes a requirement that “if a participant’s sex is disputed,” they shall “establish [their] sex” by a doctor’s note indicating their sex with reference to either “internal and external reproductive anatomy” or “levels of testosterone.”
Bill sponsor Rep. Jena Powell lauded HB 61’s passage.
“Across our country, female athletes are currently losing championships, scholarship opportunities, medals, education and training opportunities and more to discriminatory policies that allow biological males to compete in girls sports,” Powell said.
“I am passionate about this issue because we can not allow girls’ dreams of being a gold medal athlete to be crushed by biological males stealing their opportunity,” Powell continued.
Democrats, for their part, attacked the bill and claimed that transgender athletes are so rare that their participation in women’s sports is not a problem.
“This is not a real problem,” Democratic Rep. Rich Brown, said. “This is a made-up, ‘let’s feed red meat to the base’ issue.”
“There are not scores of girls’ dreams being crushed, there is one child trying to play on their high school sports team,” another Democratic representative said. “This is a made-up controversy, and this amendment is state-sanctioned bullying against one child.”
