ATLANTA — State senators set out guidelines for potential new laws restricting transgender participation in Georgia school sports.
Currently, the Georgia High School Association oversees such a ban. The committee wants it written into state law instead.
"I know there are biological differences between men and women," said state Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming) Friday. The GOP-led study committee he chaired came up with a list of recommendations to restrict transgender participation in school sports.
- It urged new laws defining sports “based on an athletes' biological sex at birth.”
- It would extend that to include public schools but also private schools that compete with public schools.
- It would restrict bathroom access based on birth gender.
- It would provide civil procedures for grievances and would withhold state funding from schools that failed adhere to state guidelines.
- And it would prevent the Georgia High School association and others from enacting such rules – instead, writing them into state law.
The committee’s recommendations come after sometimes emotional hearings in which collegiate women swimmers complained about competing against a transgender athlete at a tournament at Georgia Tech.
"You’re hurting these transgender kids. and I think it’s politically motivated," Kim Siders told the committee on Nov. 21. She is the mother of a 13-year-old transgender child. She was among the transgender activists who argued that the proposed solutions were disproportionate to the problem in Georgia.
"I’ve heard from a lot of legislators who are supportive of categorical bans who are unable to identify a single transgender athlete in their state, much less a transgender girl in their state," attorney Sasha Buchert of Lambda Legal told the committee on Nov. 21.
Though committee members said they respected the viewpoints of transgender activists – the recommendations came down strongly against them.
"I recognize there are passions on the both sides of this issue," Dolezal said Friday. "I hope we recognize we can do two things at one time. We can treat people respectfully, but we can also have an eye toward fairness in the legislative process."
The general assembly opens its 2025 session in one month. Republican leadership could give such a bill traction pretty quickly.