Ohio lawmakers introduce bill that would ban transgender athletes from girls high school sports

Transgender women and girls couldn’t join their schools’ female soccer, field hockey or track teams if a bill introduced Tuesday by two Ohio Republicans becomes law. 

“Girls want the chance to play fair and win by the rules,” Rep. Jena Powell, R-Arcanum, said. “That opportunity is being ripped away from them by biological males competing in the same sport.”

It’s a question high school sports associations across the country have tried to answer in recent years: How to balance the needs, hopes and dreams of all their student athletes in a way that’s fair?

For Powell, the solution is to prohibit anyone who was born a male from competing as a female in sports.

“This bill ensures that every little girl who works hard to make it on a podium is not robbed of her chance by a biological male competing against her in a biological female sport. We want every little girl to achieve her athletic dream here in the state of Ohio,” she said.

But LGBTQ advocates, such as TransOhio board member Lena Tenney, say the blanket bans “are part of a broader, coordinated effort to erase trans kids from society.”

The Save Women’s Sports Act would require the Ohio High School Athletic Association to block any male-born student from participating in a girls’ sport in both public and private schools. Currently, the OHSAA requires transgender girls to show proof that they’ve been on hormone therapy for at least one year or demonstrate that the student doesn’t have a physiological advantage over other athletes her age.

“That’s already extremely gate-keeping,” Tenney said.

And, Tenney said, it ignores the fact that most kids aren’t going to become professional or even collegiate athletes regardless of their gender.

“This is about letting trans kids have a childhood,” Tenney said.

Studies show transgender students are at a higher risk for bullying, self-harm and suicide, and sports can be a way for these kids to learn to love themselves and their bodies.

“This concern that trans girls and trans women will be better misses the point,” Tenney said. “It’s not their ‘trans-ness’ that gives them a competitive advantage... People’s bodies are inherently different.”

For example, Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps’ body produces half the normal amount of lactic acid (the stuff that makes your muscles feel tired), and he has double-jointed ankles, which give his kicks unusual range.

“He’s an American sports hero, but trans kids can’t play on their middle school baseball team,” Tenney said.

Three female track runners in Connecticut disagree. The trio recently sued to reverse their state’s policy of allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls high school sports. The runners say they’ve lost championship titles and college scholarships because their competitors have the physical advantages of male anatomy like strong tendons, larger hearts and higher red blood cell counts.

They claim the rules violate Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of sex.

“This is not about women trying harder or training more,” said Rachel Citak, who serves as legal counsel for a Columbus-based conservative group called Citizens for Community Values. “No matter how hard we train, women perform 10% slower across the board. That’s our physiological, biological reality.”

Ohio isn’t the only state rethinking its rules on transgender athletes. Washington, Missouri, Georgia and Tennessee are also debating bills to require every student play on teams matching their gender assigned at birth.

Neither Powell nor her co-sponsor, Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus, R-Paris Township, knew of an Ohio case similar to the one in Connecticut. But they were adamant that’s why their bill should be passed as soon as possible.

“The fact remains that one girl losing a spot to a male is one too many,” Stolzfus said. “It’s unfair.”