Texas' transgender student-athletes will be restricted from playing on K-12 school sports teams that align with their gender identity under a bill Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Oct. 25, The Texas Tribune reported.
House Bill 25—which state Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, authored—will require student-athletes who compete in interscholastic competition to play on sports teams that correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificate at or near their time of birth. It is set to go into effect Jan. 18, 2022.
The Texas Senate passed bills similar to HB 25 during this year's multiple legislative sessions, but the measures repeatedly failed to make it through the Texas House. This most recent measure was sent to the House Select Committee on Constitutional Rights and Remedies, chaired by state Rep. Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin, instead of the House Public Education Committee, chaired by state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston.
Texas now joins at least five other states that have passed similar measures in recent months, according to The Dallas Morning News.
"Without having some kind of federal intervention that's going to protect the LGBTQ community, but especially trans kids… I just foresee that our rights and trans kids are going to continue being attacked," state Rep. Jessica Gonzalez, of Dallas, said.
On Oct. 22, senior White House staff held a roundtable with LGBTQ youth, families, advocates and elected officials to discuss how recent legislation has impacted Texas children. The White House has already denounced the transgender sports restrictions bill as "hateful."
