ATLANTA — Georgia is one step closer to banning transgender women from playing women’s sports and restricting their access to locker rooms and restrooms around the state.
They debated the bill on the House floor for nearly two hours with both sides passionate about the bill that would ban transgender women from playing sports with biological women in Georgia’s public schools and universities.
It would also limit their access to women’s locker rooms and restrooms.
Democrats attacked the bill as political theater.
“This bill has absolutely nothing to do with girls’ and women’s fairness in sports, and it has everything to do with using us as political props,” state Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook said.
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Republicans defended it saying it was needed to protect women athletes.
“My daughter deserves a safe space. She deserves it. She deserves a safe space to compete,” state Rep. Brad Thomas said.
House Speaker Jon Burns made passing this transgender sports bill one of his top priorities.
“I think I’ve been very clear. No young woman should ever be forced to face a biological male on the court, on the field or in the locker room,” Burns said.
As expected, the bill passed along party lines.
Georgia Equality’s Jeff Graham expects to see lawsuits filed and pointed out that the state of Georgia has lost every transgender lawsuit it’s ever faced.
He also thinks this is more about politics than protection.
“Discrimination is wrong. It’s costly for the state, and it’s a sad day for Georgians that we’re doing this under the guise of sports,” Graham said.
There are a number of transgender-related bills moving through the General Assembly. This now heads to the Senate.
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