A measure that could lead to a ban on trans students participating in school sports has been passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives, but in such a way that the Republican who proposed it is now mad that it happened at all.
While half of the states currently have laws that ban trans youth from participating in school sports, those have been red or purple states with Republican majorities in their legislatures. Massachusetts made headlines this week as the first deep blue state to advance such a ban.
But, the Boston Globe reports, what actually happened was more complicated.
At issue is an amendment to a $1.3 billion spending bill that the House passed on Wednesday afternoon. An amendment, filed by state Rep. John Gaskey (R), would have banned schools from allowing “a male student athlete to participate on a girls’ sports team” or a “female athlete to participate on a boys sports team.”
Insights for the LGBTQ+ community
Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
State Rep. Ken Gordon (D) then filed an amendment saying that Gaskey’s amendment won’t take effect unless the state conducts a policy analysis for safety issues. The state would have to issue a report, and the legislature would have to pass a separate bill to ban trans students from participating in school sports.
The chamber, which has a Democratic majority, then passed the spending bill.
Gaskey complained that Gordon’s measure could “bury” his attempt to ban trans student-athletes if the state never conducts the necessary policy analysis or if the legislature never takes up separate legislation to ban trans participation in school sports.
Gordon’s amendment is “a way to bury this and make sure that nobody ever gets this on the record,” Gaskey said.
“We already know how this is going to affect people,” he complained, explaining why a policy analysis is, in his opinion, not necessary. “We already know how many students are going to be affected: Every student is going to be affected.”
“We don’t need a study. The polls support this. The federal government supports this. It’s time that we recognize science.”
Still, while the measure passed by the Massachusetts House on Wednesday will not lead to a trans sports ban in the state, LGBTQ+ advocates are worried that this is being brought up at all.
“Right now the trans community is under attack from the federal government and the executive branch. The last thing our community needs is for legislators in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts making transgender kids a target,” said MassEquality executive director Tanywa Neslusan. “I am extremely dismayed that they are treating this issue as if it’s even a credible thing to say or to even look into.”
Earlier this year, the president signed an executive order requiring his administration to work to get schools and states to ban trans students from participating in school sports as their genders. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have already rescinded key grants on unrelated policy areas from the state of Maine in order to pressure that state into banning trans student-athletes. The U.S. Department of Education and the DOJ launched a joint investigative team to root out the “pernicious effects of gender ideology in school programs and activities.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.