SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah House committee voted Thursday in favor of a bill that would bar transgender girls from competing in female sports in public and private K-12 schools— even as a legislative attorney warned there was “significant risk” a court could find the law unconstitutional, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Titled “preserving sports for female students,” the legislation from Rep. Kera Birkeland would require schools to categorize all athletic activities as “male,” “female,” or “coed.” Students of the “male sex” would not be permitted to join in sporting events designated as being for women, according to the bill, which defines sex as the “biological, physical condition of being male or female, determined by an individual’s genetics and anatomy at birth.”
HB302, which passed after two hours of debate with an 8-6 vote on Thursday, does not address transgender boys, who it appears would not be barred from participating in athletic activities with boys’ teams under the bill. It also does not contemplate people who are intersex, or who are born with both male and female traits.
Click here to read the full story from The Salt Lake Tribune.
