Texas House Passes Bill To Bar Transgender Athletes From Women's Sports

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Source: Huffington Post

The Texas House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation that would bar transgender athletes from participating in school sports that match their gender identity, putting Texas on track to becoming the largest state to pass such legislation as part of a larger Republican crusade against transgender rights this year.

The bill, HB 25, passed in the Texas House by a vote of 76-54 after more than 10 hours of emotional debate.

The bill, which largely takes aim at the ability of trans women and girls to participate in women’s sports, still needs final approval from the Texas Senate, but that body has already approved similar legislation, and passage there is considered likely.

Link to tweet

Eight states, all with Republican legislatures, have enacted legislation targeting transgender athletes, while South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed an executive order similar to those laws this year. But the Texas bill, House Bill 25, will likely have larger implications, given that Texas is home to the nation’s second-largest LGBTQ population and often serves as a starting point for the most aggressive conservative legislation in the country.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-anti-trans-sports-bill-passes_n_61685acfe4b0fcd00f9b6e58

[Ms. Toad]

1. Support for the Texas legislation incoming in 3...2...1

I **WISH** I was kidding.

[madville]

16. Not surprising, here is some recent poll data from Gallup

A 62% majority support what this legislation is trying to accomplish, including 41% of Democrats polled.

[url=https://ibb.co/3mNjrNc][img][/img][/url]

https://news.gallup.com/poll/350174/mixed-views-among-americans-transgender-issues.aspx

[Ms. Toad]

18. Republicans are genius at picking issues on which Democrats are divided

to use to drive their voters to the polls (while preventing Dems from effectively campaigning against them because expressing support for issue like this is a death knell).

My marriage was used in 2004 when Kerry was running for president. There was no chance in hell of defeating Issue 1 (marriage discrimination amendment), so I campaigned for Kerry with the Supreme Court in mind and didn't say a word in opposition to Issue 1 when I door knocked or called - since I knew there were lots of Dems who opposed my marriage. Meanwhile, the Republicans actively campaigned both for Bush and the amendment, including (as will work here, as well) in evangelical churches - among people who often didn't bother to go to the polls. That got them to the polls to spit on me, and while they were there they voted for Bush.

They are doing it again, and even a substantial minority on DU is helping them do it.

[madville]

19. That's a good point

I personally don’t think that a trans female high school or college age athlete should be able to compete against biological females, especially if they went through puberty as a male with all their hormones at normal levels.

It’s a huge physical advantage and not fair to the ones who were female since birth. It completely defeats the reason we have female categories in high school and college sports, because they can’t physically compete with male athletes.

[Ms. Toad]

23. Don't let them use you to win electons. n/t

[bamagal62]

2. What is wrong with these people?

I friggin hate Texas.

[Escurumbele]

4. And you are going to hate Texas even more because, like someone said, it is a "Test Lab"

Just like Venezuela was/is a test lab for dictators to follow that blueprint, so is Texas for republicans to follow in other states. I don't know what the Biden administration can do, but they better start doing something fast because the thieves are very diligent and proactive, republicans don't know how to govern, but they sure do know how to screw things up and they sure want to be part of a dictatorship.

[calguy]

3. That'll do wonders for the lives of your average Texan

Leave to Texas to deal with the most important issues of the day.

[caraher]

5. Continuing to tackle the big issues affecting Texans

You've got a power grid that doesn't work, but let's worry about this. I feel sorry for the sane people in Texas living under the rule of these yahoos...

[Ford_Prefect]

6. Thousands of people are getting COVID and this is what's important to the GOP.

Putting trans women and girls under another yoke.

I notice the bill only identifies trans females. There is no mention of trans males. A curious omission wouldn't you think?

[Withywindle]

7. They don't think trans men are real

Or if they are, that they can compete with cis men.


They're in for a surprise.

[Jon King]

8. Health care? Infrastructure? Climate change? Education?

Nah, but a tiny number of trans kids who might someday want to play sports...they are all over it.

[katmondoo]

9. The men of Texas are all cowards. I hope one day women will take revenge for all the years they have

been mistreated.

[OldBaldy1701E]

13. I don't understand why they have not started already. (n/t)

[madville]

17. Majority of women support what this legislation does

53% according to this recent Gallup poll. I bet it’s even higher if the question was polled only in Texas.


[url=https://ibb.co/3mNjrNc][img][/img][/url]

https://news.gallup.com/poll/350174/mixed-views-among-americans-transgender-issues.aspx

[rpannier]

10. Remove the Cotton Bowl from the CFP

NFL says no playoff games
The state will fold - especially with the year the Cowboys are having

[Lonestarblue]

11. The Texas Taliban strikes again.

Perhaps now that they’ve single handedly wiped out reproductive rights for millions of Texas women—aided by the right-wing evangelicals on the SC—I wonder what rights they plan to remove next. Fortunately this special session of the legislature is about to end, but Abbott and Republicans will be working behind the scenes to figure out how to deny same-sex marriage and force all LGBTQ back to the closet. And there’s always birth control since the anti-abortionists also want that to be illegal.

After those rights are demolished, I’m sure they can come up with other ways to deny the Hispanic and Black vote. And maybe they can lower the income cutoff for Medicaid even more to cut off millions more poor people from any healthcare and save the state a few dollars they can then give to big business.

Education might be next on their list because they certainly don’t want white Texas kids to learn any real history or science since Republicans believe in neither.

Given the recent laws, it will be interesting to see if they have any effect on the number of people and businesses moving here. The growth has been extraordinary over the past several years, but the state has done very little to address how that growth affects residents. The cost of housing has increased in and around big cities, and the homeless population just continues to grow as well. Rush hour is now several hours and gridlock in many areas wastes an enormous amount of time. Public transportation is the last thing the Republicans want to spend money on because their big oil donors want those gas-guzzling trucks and large SUVs on the road.

Most of the frustrations of growth occur in the large cities, all of which are Democratic with the exception of Fort Worth. Unfortunately, the state is gerrymandered to give the majority of state districts to rural Republican voters, so it is they who send the most extremist candidates possible to the legislature. The cities have very little representation. And that will not change for several years because Republicans have made gerrymandering even worse now that they have no federal oversight. Breaking this cycle of permanent Republican rule will be difficult.

[JohnnyRingo]

12. Soon the governor will be replaced by an Ayatollah

They already have vigilante morality squads patrolling the streets looking for abortionists, how much further until they ban homosexuality and dancing?

[They_Live]

14. ...and they are in their THIRD special session.

not good. They seem to be trying to ram through a bunch of anti-vaxx stuff. and gerrymandering.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

15. Last Night's Passage of Anti-Trans, Anti-Child H.B. 25 Is New Low, Even For Republicans

Link to tweet

[madville]

20. This is an interesting dilemma

On one hand you don’t want to exclude trans female athletes. On the other hand, what happens years from now if trans female athletes have shattered all the biological female records and make up a majority of our female college scholarships or Olympic athletes? Do we just tell the biological females tough luck and to deal with it, especially since they are at a physical disadvantage through no fault of their own?

The main reason female sports were created and have thrived is because it gives them an equal playing field and now that is being taken away.

[OverBurn]

21. I'm very Liberal, BUT..............

I'm very Liberal and support LGBTQ, I'm fine with all of it. Everyone should have equal rights. But, I DO NOT support transgender females (born male) competing against cis females (born female) athletically. It's just not fair, it's not equal rights, it's a born advantage.

[Ron Obvious]

22. Don't be knee-jerk and think this one through, please

Why would you want to throw high school and college girls (many on scholarship) under the bus by having them compete against biological boys, ffs? It's not just an issue of fairness, but of safety in some sports.

Anybody who has gone through male puberty will have an enormous advantage in size and strength which is not significantly diminished by reducing testosterone levels. They should not be competing against young women regardless of what they consider themselves to be.

I can't believe anybody would seriously think they ought to be. That'd be insanity.

[greenjar_01]

24. They're really doing important work down there