Tennessee bars men from competing on women's sports teams
Senate Bill 2153 bars male athletes from competing in women's divisions at the middle school, high school, and collegiate levels.
The bill was signed by Governor Bill Lee on May 6 after it passed the Senate in a 27-4 vote on Apr. 11.
On Friday, Tennessee became the seventeenth state to pass legislation that protects women’s sports.
Senate Bill 2153 bars male athletes from competing in women’s divisions at the middle school, high school, and collegiate levels.
The legislation, which goes into effect Jul. 1, “requires each institution of higher education to adopt and enforce a policy to ensure compliance with the provisions of this bill that are applicable to intercollegiate and college intramural sports,” according to the bill summary.
The bill was signed by Governor Bill Lee on May 6 after it passed the Senate in a 27-4 vote on Apr. 11. The House subsequently approved it 70-14 on Apr. 25.
Republicans have a majority in both chambers.
Tennessee has followed in the footsteps of 16 other states who have adopted similar laws to protect the integrity of women’s sports at different levels of athletic competition.
Campus Reform has reported on identical bills that have been tried and failed to be signed in states like Indiana and Kansas.
In April, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf preemptively promised to kill an up-and-coming bill that would ban men from women’s sports in the state.
Additional states are taking action this year to propose their own regulations for ensuring fairness in women’s athletics.
Below are three additional states attempting to level the playing field for gendered sports:
South Carolina
South Carolina made headlines last month as state Democrats attempted to delay voting on House Bill 4608 by proposing over 1,000 amendments to the legislation. As Campus Reform reported, lawmakers deliberated on the Save Women’s Sports Act for nearly 8 hours before approving it 82-28.
On May 4, the state Senate passed the bill in a 30-10 vote.
It is not yet known whether Governor Henry McMaster (R) will sign the bill.
Louisiana
Senate Bill 44 passed the state’s upper chamber in a 29-6 vote on Apr. 19. It now moves on to a vote in the state’s House of Representatives.
Republicans have a 68-34 majority in the House.
The Louisiana bill applies to both K-12 and collegiate sports.
A similar campaign was pushed through the legislature to the executive desk last year, however, Governor John Bel Edwards (D) refused to sign the bill into law.
Edwards said his reasoning for not wanting to enact such legislation is due to the issue not being relevant to Louisiana, The Center Square reports.
”I would hope it doesn’t reach my desk,” he stated, according to the news outlet. “It’s pretty sad because it’s theoretically a bill about unfairness, but... that unfairness, it isn’t happening in Louisiana.”
Alaska
An amendment to Senate Bill 140 is making the legislation applicable only to the K-12 level.
As a result, the bill would not apply to the University of Alaska, Alaska’s News Source reports.
The outlet also reported that the university expressed opposition to potential fiscal ramifications the enacted legislation could have on the public university.
”The university also noted that the National Collegiate Athletics Association might not allow post-season sports competitions from taking place in Alaska and the state of California might prohibit teams from competing with the University of Alaska Fairbanks,” Alaska’s News Source reported.
Campus Reform has contacted every bill sponsor of the bills mentioned; this article will be updated accordingly.
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