The legislation would codify safety for girls’ sports at the state level after a federal executive order offered these protections nationwide in early February.
A piece of Pennsylvania legislation, SB 9, would protect girls’ sports at the state level, preventing trans-identifying males from competing on female athletic teams.
“We want to ensure that female students in high school athletics and college sports have a level playing field,” stated Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill regarding the bill. “These are opportunities that women who came before us fought very hard to achieve and we want to maintain those.”
Phillips-Hill is joined in her support of the legislation, known as the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, by every other female Republican senator and eight male Republican senators; no members of the Senate Democratic caucus have signed on to co-sponsor the legislation.
SB 9 requires that school athletic teams be designated as male, female, or coed and places a specific prohibition on male students being permitted to participate on teams designated as female. Furthermore, the bill provides a female student a cause of action to seek legal relief if she is deprived of an athletic opportunity or otherwise harmed by a violation of the bill’s requirements, or if she experiences retaliation after reporting a violation of the bill’s requirements.
Legislation preventing trans males from participating on female athletic teams has rapidly grown in popularity across the country; if SB 9 were to be signed into law, Pennsylvania would become the 19th state to codify protections for girls’ sports. Still, activists within the transgender community characterize such legislation as unnecessary.
“Trying to use bills like Senate Bill 9 to target a tiny minority of young people in Pennsylvania is a solution in search of a problem,” claimed Daye Pope, director of civic engagement for Trans Advocates Knowledgeable Empowering (TAKE), in a statement for a local news station. Pope went on to opine that males competing in female sports is “not a real problem that needs to be solved with taxpayer money and with the time of our legislators.”
Among the sponsors of SB 9, however, former female athletes such as state Sen. Rosemary Brown have shared their own experiences of being positively impacted by a “level playing field.”
“It’s important to remember that every valid competition begins with a level playing field, ensuring that the competition and results are accurate and fair,” stated Brown in an earlier press release.
“This legislation is about safeguarding that accuracy and fairness as it directly relates to women’s sports. As a former college athlete, I value my competitive experiences, which were positive in developing my hard work and confidence. I want to ensure that female athletes always have these fair and positive opportunities.”
The topic of blocking trans-identifying boys from girls’ sports has been at the forefront of recent media after President Trump signed an executive order announcing federal funds would be pulled from any academic institution failing to protect girls’ sports. The President has held the line on this ultimatum, telling Maine Gov. Janet Mills in a Friday exchange, “You better do it because you’re not going to get federal funding,” after the state has said it will not comply with the order.
