Tenn. bill would force students to compete as their biological sex at birth

A state legislator has introduced a bill in Tennessee that would require state-funded elementary and secondary school student-athletes to compete as the gender stated on their original birth certificate.

HB 1572 states that any school found violating the law would be “immediately ineligible to continue to receive public funds of any type from this state or a local government.”

“We are seeing more and more transgender athletes competing and posting victories in traditionally gendered sports competitions, and doing so to the detriment of girls and women biologically born female,” the bill’s sponosor, Rep. Bruce Griffey, told the Tennessee Star. “Boys and men, due to testosterone levels, bigger bone structure, greater lung capacity, and larger heart size, have physical advantages in sports relative to girls and women.”

Griffey, who introduced the bill on Dec. 9, told the newspaper he thinks it’s “fundamentally unfair” for female-born athletes to have to compete for scholarships against male-born athletes.

Anyone knowingly violating Tennessee’s newly introduced bill could be subject to a $10,000 penalty and “immediately vacated” from their job. In addition, that person would not be “eligible to hold public office or a position as a school administrator or principal for a period of five (5) years.”

In May 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Equality Act, a bill that would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act, extending civil rights protections to LGBT people by prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

At the time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that sexual orientation and gender identity “deserve full civil rights protections — in the workplace and in every place, education, housing, credit, jury service, public accommodations.”

The Equality Act was sent to the Senate, where it is currently in a committee review.

Griffey told the Star that the Equality Act “creates a civil right for male athletes to self-identify as females in sports competitions. I believe it is important for states to take a stand.”