ATLANTA — Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler announced this week she'd introduced a bill that would seek to bar transgender girls and women from participating in girls' and women's sports.
The bill, called the "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2020," was first introduced in the House by a Florida representative in January.
It seeks to redefine sex for the purposes of Tile IX protections as "based solely a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth" and threatens federal funding to programs that "permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls."
LGBTQ+ groups have argued such legislation would open up any girl to a challenge of their sex, and subject them to genital and DNA tests.
Loeffler said it would "protect women and girls by safeguarding fairness and leveling the athletic field that Title IX guarantees."
Chase Strangio, a transgender rights advocate with the ACLU, told NBC News "these groups don’t care about sports or women’s rights" and framed the legislation as "looking for ways to attack trans people, and in the process, hurting all women and girls.”
The bill was co-sponsored in the Senate by Republicans Mike Lee of Utah, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, James Lankford of Oklahoma, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
With the House held by Democrats and the nearing of the end of the 116th Congress in January, it is all but certain that the bill won't become law.
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