PA. The Senate votes to ban transgender athletes in girls' sports, but Bill faces a difficult battle
Le Pennsylvania Capitol Building in Harrisburg. Commonwealth Media Services
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (AP) – The Senate of the State of Pennsylvania approved on Tuesday a bill to prohibit transgender athletes from participating in female and girls sports at college and kindergarten in the 12th year, although the bill on representatives of the state under controlled by the State.
The bill was adopted, 32-18, with five democrats crossing the lines of the party to join the 27 Republicans to vote “yes”. The vote marked the second time that the GOP controlled Senate adopted it. A previous attempt, in concert with a house under republican control, then met Gov. Tom Wolf veto pen in 2022.
This time, the Senate Republicans advanced the effort after President Donald Trump declared his intention to “keep men away from female sports”. And made it a major campaign problem During last year's elections, divide the Democrats on how to react.
The bill applies to the participation in the sports of girls and women who are sponsored by public schools, public universities and community colleges in public charter.
It also prohibits any kind of government agency or sports association from investigating or punishing a school or higher education establishment for having maintained separate sports teams for girls or women.
For more than an hour, the Republicans and the Democrats debated the bill, sometimes strongly. The sponsor, senator Judy Ward, a BLAIR Republican, said the bill “would ensure that all young women have a good chance of participating in the sports they love”. The head of the Senate minority, Jay Costa, Democrat of Algheny, qualified the discriminatory bill against transgender people, as well as “useless, unjustified and unconstitutional in my mind”.
Democrats have warned that the bill will nowhere, and a spokesperson for the Democratic leaders of the Chamber accused the Senate Republicans of being “more focused on the division political theater and the intimidation of children for political points”. The office of the Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro did not respond to an investigation into the bill, although he has in the past expressed his opposition to such bans.
Trump, as president, sign An executive decree intended to prohibit transgender athletes from participating in the sports of girls and women.
The Pennsylvania director for secondary sports, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, then has changed its policy In a decision which, according to some officials, was designed to follow Trump's order, except that lawyers on both sides of the question say that the change in the formulation of policies does nothing of the kind.
The PIAA said that she was aware of a transgender student participating in sports, but refused to say more about it, saying that it is the subject of a dispute.
In response to Trump's order, the NCAA revised its Transgender Participation Policy To limit female university sports to affected athletes as a woman at birth. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, an organ director of small schools, Prohibition of transgender athletes in 2023 female sports.
