Ohio Legislators Want To Check Children’s Gender

Late at night on Wednesday, June 1, a bill meant to modify Ohio’s teacher residency program suddenly acquired an unrelated amendment. Under the Save Women’s Sports Act, a student athlete’s gender can be questioned, requiring that student to bring a note from their doctor to verify their sex.

Under the bill, schools must establish separate male, female, and co-ed sports teams, and no school or interscholastic sports conference may permit “individuals of the male sex” to participate in any teams or competitions designate for “participants of the female sex.”

Then this language follows:

If a participant’s sex is disputed, the participant shall establish the participant’s sex by presenting a signed physicians statement indicating the participant’s sex based upon only the following:

1) The participant’s internal and external reproductive anatomy;

2) The participant’s normal endogenously produced levels of testosterone;

3) An analysis of the participants genetic makeup.

The bill does not include any language limiting who may dispute the athlete’s gender, under what conditions, nor when such disputing can occur.

Under this language, any young girl playing sports in Ohio could be challenged because she doesn’t look feminine enough or simply wins too often. There is nothing in the bill to say that such a challenge couldn’t be lodged publicly by a disgruntled opponents coach, parent or random fan. Will soccer referees now have to throw a “suspected transgender athlete on the field” flag?

In their haste to slap restrictions on trans athletes, legislators propose a tool that could be used to humiliate any young woman playing sports in Ohio.

It’s stunning to imagine a teen or pre-teen athlete, working her way through the challenge of building and finding her identity, to be told by her school that she must go through an invasive physical exam to provide proof that she is who she says she is.

Conversely, the bill provides plenty of protection for people bringing these charges. Any athlete who feels she has been deprived of an “athletic opportunity” or who feels she has suffered direct or indirect harm because of a violation of the law against trans female athletes has a “private cause of action” and may sue the school, the school district, or any organization regulating interscholastic athletics.

The athlete who demands to see proof of a female athlete’s gender is also explicitly protected from any “retaliation or other adverse action” by the school or related organizations.

The bill also protects a school district from any lawsuit brought against them for maintaining the separate sports programs required by this bill, and may in fact sue anyone who sues them over the matter.

There are no provisions in the bill creating penalties for people who bring frivolous or abusive challenges against female athletes. Nor is there any recourse for young transgender women who are hereby stripped of their right to play sports.

The bill was passed along party lines, with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats opposing.

Rep. Sara Carruthers (R-Hamilton) supported the bill to protect the integrity of women’s sports and suggested that schools instead offer trans athletic teams.

The amendment was offered by Rep. Jena Powell, the representative for the 80th district and a graduate of Liberty University. Powell said, “All these girls ask is for a fair shot” but that “the opportunity is being ripped from them by biological males.” Powell previously proposed similar language as both a stand-alone bill and an amendment to other bills.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association already has a policy laying out requirements under which transgender athletes may play in a girls sport or team.

Rep. Richard Brown (D-Canal Winchester) said, “This is not a real problem. This is made up, let’s feed red meat to the base issue.”

Rep. Beth Liston (D-Dublin) is also a pediatrics professor at Ohio States. She told WKSU’s statehouse bureau that the bill “didn’t make sense from a medical standpoint” and that it would “subject kids to undergo invasive tests to prove their gender.”

The bill next goes to the Senate, which will not be back in session until November. That should give them time to reconsider a bill that is not only an extreme assault on young transgender athletes, but on every young female athlete in the state. It’s an extreme invasion of privacy to come from the party of small government.