Tennessee Governor signs transgender sports bill that requires students to prove their sex at birth

Tennessee Governor signs transgender sports bill that requires students to prove their sex at birth

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The bill states that “the student’s gender for the purpose of participating in a public high school or high school inter-school sporting activity or event is determined by the student’s gender at the time of the student’s birth, as indicated on the student’s certificate. original birth of the student. “

Students must provide proof of their gender at the time of birth, if their birth certificate is not the original or does not indicate the student’s gender at the time of birth. This does not apply to students in kindergarten until 4th grade, says the Tennessee bill.

“I signed the bill to preserve women’s athletics and ensure fair competition,” Lee tweeted when signing the invoice. “This legislation responds to harmful federal policies that oppose the years of progress made under Title IX and I commend members of the General Assembly for their bipartisan work.”
Mississippi Governor signs bill banning transgender female sports students, passing the first 2021 anti-trans law
On Thursday, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed a similar bill – the Women’s Sports Justice Act – in his state. And earlier this month, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves also signed a similar bill.

The Tennessee bill, which opponents called “discriminatory”, will require students to play sports based on the gender identification of their birth certificate and only compete with other athletes of the same biological sex.

“Governor Lee’s haste to sign this discriminatory anti-transgender bill, unfortunately, comes as no surprise, considering how Tennessee’s elected leaders have aggressively pushed a ‘Hate List’ against LGBTQ people in recent years,” said Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a statement.

“This project legislates against a problem that simply does not exist and targets transgender children who are trying to navigate in their teens,” said David. “Trans children are children. Excluding and discriminating against them is very harmful to them and weakens the communities in which these children feel excluded and marginalized.”

CNN’s Leah Asmelash contributed to this report.

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