In Opposition
Bills Targeting Transgender Athletes (H.4608,H.4153, S.531, and H.3477)
Governor Henry McMaster signed H.4608, an anti-transgender bill that restricts transgender students from participating in school sports in middle school, high school, and college.
Governor Henry McMaster signed H.4608, an anti-transgender bill that restricts transgender students from participating in school sports in middle school, high school, and college.
The passage of H.4608 comes after more than two years of LGBTQ+ and allied South Carolinians resisting similar efforts to ban transgender youth from sports participation. Between 2020 and 2021 advocates defeated 8 different versions of this bill, demonstrating consistent and powerful leadership from supporters of transgender dignity and equality. SC United for Justice & Equality is a coalition of more than 30 organizations committed to LGBTQ equality in SC that fought hard against the bill.
Banning transgender youth from school sports will endanger their health and well-being by erasing them from public life, ostracizing them from their peers, and excluding them from the enormous physical, mental, and social benefits of playing sports. Promoting baseless fears about transgender athletes exacerbates existing gender-based inequalities in interscholastic sports by reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes. This bad policy promotes a climate of hatred that endangers the welfare of all students.
Press Coverage
- South Carolina superintendent against trans sports ban bill
- WREN Testimony in Opposition to This Bill
- Coalition of LGBTQ Advocates in South Carolina Call on Legislators to Reject Anti-Transgender School Athletics Bill In Advance of Subcommittee Hearing
- SC bill that would ban trans students from playing on all-girls sports teams gets mixed reactions