ACLU of Tennessee Statement on Bill Excluding Transgender Student Athletes Passing House

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Today the Tennessee House passed SB 228/HB 3, which prohibits transgender student athletes from participating in athletics consistent with their gender identity. The legislation will next be sent to Governor Lee for his signature.

Hedy Weinberg, ACLU of Tennessee executive director had this reaction:

“Today’s vote by state legislators embedding discrimination against transgender youth into state law is shameful. Transgender girls do not threaten women’s sports. Even the bill sponsors have admitted that they do not know of a single instance of a Tennessee student facing any harm from a transgender athlete playing sports. Transgender girls are girls. Transgender boys are boys. They simply want to participate in school sports for the same reason as anybody else: to find a sense of belonging and social engagement with their peers, to be a part of a team, and to challenge themselves. With this discriminatory and unconstitutional bill, lawmakers have now compromised trans children’s health, social and emotional development, and safety. Instead of focusing on fear-based myths, our state should focus on the actual issues with gender parity in sports when it comes to funding, resources, pay equity, and more. Promoting baseless fears about trans athletes does nothing to address those very real problems. We urge Governor Lee to reverse course and veto this bill or – should any transgender student be excluded because of this new law – we will see him in court.”

This statement is available online at: https://www.aclu-tn.org/statement-bill-excluding-transgender-student-athletes-passing-house