In Opposition
“Save Women’s Sports” Acts H.4153, S.531, and H.3477
This dangerous bill would ostracize transgender students from their peers by banning their participation in interscholastic activities that align with their gender identity. Participation in gender-segregated activities would be determined by the student’s sex assigned at birth on their birth certificate. This bill would further stigmatize transgender youth and exclude them from the enormous physical, mental, and social benefits of playing sports.
Three bill numbers exist for the same discriminatory legislation because the same attempt to ban transgender girls from school sports has been repeated over and over in this legislative cycle. Legislators continue to introduce this hateful bill, and each time it gets defeated (3 to be exact). WREN has opposed these bills each time, and we will continue to do so as many times as we need to.
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