Tennessee governor signs transgender athlete penalty bill

NASHVILLE, Tenn –

Tennessee will quickly add harsh penalties towards public faculties that permit transgender athletes to take part in ladies’ sports activities, below laws lately signed into legislation by Republican Gov. Invoice Lee.

Lee quietly signed the proposal final Friday with out remark. The governor had beforehand signed a measure final yr mandating that pupil athletes should show their intercourse matches that listed on the coed’s “authentic” beginning certificates. If a beginning certificates was unavailable, then the dad and mom should present one other type of proof “indicating the coed’s intercourse on the time of beginning.”

This yr, the GOP-controlled Legislature determined so as to add penalties to that ban — which is in impact whilst a lawsuit difficult its constitutionality makes it approach by way of courtroom. A trial has been tentatively set for March 2023.

In line with the invoice, Tennessee’s Division of Schooling would withhold a portion of state funds from native faculty districts that fail to find out a pupil’s gender for participation in center or highschool sports activities. The measure doesn’t specify precisely how a lot cash needs to be withheld by the state.

The invoice will go into impact July 1.

“Telling transgender college students that they cannot take part as who they are surely quantities to excluding them from sports activities completely — depriving them of alternatives obtainable to their friends and sending the message that they don’t seem to be worthy of a full life,” stated Henry Seaton, ACLU of Tennessee’s transgender justice advocate, in an announcement.

Tennessee lawmakers are additionally advancing a separate invoice that may ban transgender athletes from taking part in feminine faculty sports activities. Republicans have additionally pushed to let lecturers and college districts use the pronoun {that a} transgender pupil doesn’t favor, exempting lecturers from going through employment punishment and defending faculties from civil legal responsibility. Each proposals are anticipated to clear the Normal Meeting.

Final yr, no different state enacted extra legal guidelines concentrating on transgender folks than Tennessee. That included banning transgender athletes from enjoying ladies public excessive or center faculty sports activities.