Republicans used the Wisconsin Senate’s final legislative session of 2023-24 to bar transgender girls from playing high school team sports aligned with their gender identity — a move Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said he will be “damn proud” to veto.
Assembly Republicans passed their own version of the legislation in mid-October after hours of heated floor debate in which bill supporters raised the concepts of “athletic fairness” while advocates for transgender rights said such bans endanger LGBTQ+ youths.
Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, raised similar concerns in arguing against the bill on Tuesday, the last day of Senate debate for the current legislative session. The Assembly had already adjourned for the session.
“The introduction of this bill hurts kids in our state,” Spreitzer said. “All it will do is continue to harm and stigmatize transgender kids.”
He was the only member of the Senate to speak on the bill, while the same legislation garnered hours of debate in the Assembly last fall.
The Senate Committee on Mental Health, Substance Abuse Prevention, Children and Families voted against the bill 3-2 in a bipartisan decision. Nevertheless, the legislation was brought to the Senate floor Tuesday and passed 21-11.
Cosponsors of the bill have insisted it’s “not a ban as the extreme left has tried to claim,” Rep. Barbara Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc, said during an October hearing on the Assembly version of the bill. Dittrich noted that beyond barring transgender girls from participating on high school sports teams designated only for girls, the legislation would create certain co-ed teams upon which students of all genders could play, leaving “an option for everyone.”
The bill — passed with only Republican support in the Senate Tuesday — was originally proposed as part of a set of three bills that garnered hours of public testimony and a packed Capitol in early October.
Community members filled multiple overflow rooms during a series of emotional committee hearings on the three proposals, which sought to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youths and bar transgender girls from participating in high school and collegiate sports with cisgender girls.
The proposal does not ban, or mention at all, transgender boys — or students assigned female at birth — from participating on boy’s sports teams.
The bill — almost identical to a bill passed by the Assembly two years ago but which never got a vote in the Senate — has garnered opposition from advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, as well as State Superintendent Jill Underly and the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
The WIAA, which governs high school sports in the state, explained that it already has a policy on the matter that requires a transgender girl to have a documented full year of testosterone suppression therapy to be eligible to participate on a girls sports team.
WIAA spokesperson Todd Clark wrote in an October email to the Cap Times that the organization’s policy has been in place since 2015 and “has been professionally developed over time, has worked in practice, receives regular review, and has the support of the member schools.”
The proposed ban on transgender women participating in women’s collegiate sports did not progress beyond the Assembly during this year’s legislative session.
In December, Evers vetoed the proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors — introduced earlier in the year alongside the proposed sports bans — promising to “defend and protect” LGBTQ+ children throughout his term in office.
The governor confirmed Tuesday morning he will veto the high school sports bill in a social media post to X — formerly known as Twitter.
“Republicans’ anti-LGBTQ bills targeting trans kids will never become law as long as I’m governor,” Evers wrote. “I’ll keep my promise to veto any bill making Wisconsin less safe, less inclusive, and less welcoming for LGBTQ people and kids — including this one. And I’ll be damn proud to do it.”
