A state Senate panel unveiled recommendations Friday morning aimed at stopping transgender athletes from playing in girl’s sports in high schools and colleges.

The five recommendations call for the creation of rules stating that people assigned male at birth cannot participate in women’s sports and requiring schools that host athletic events to provide changing facilities based on sex at birth as well as taking away the authority of high school athletic associations to regulate participation in girls’ sports and giving it to the state legislature.

The recommendations, which could also apply to private school teams when they play public schools, say the Senate should provide enforcement options for people who feel aggrieved by a school’s changing room policy, including opening schools up to lawsuits and withholding state funding to schools that do not comply.

“It is indisputable that there are biological differences between men and women,” said committee chair Greg Dolezal, a Cumming Republican. “Those biological differences result in men being able to jump higher, throw farther, run faster, swim faster, do a number of other things due to the increased bone density, larger heart, larger lung capacity, the increased muscle mass that resulted in Title IX and the recognition that we needed to have a category that was carved out specific to women.”

“We can both treat people respectfully, but we can also have an eye towards fairness in the legislative process, and that is what I hope to do as we move forward with this,” he said.

The recommendations could find their way into legislative proposals next year. Lawmakers are set to begin the annual legislative session Jan. 13, and bills targeting transgender youth have gotten traction in recent years.

This year, LGBTQ advocates celebrated at the end of the legislation when bills they described as anti-LGBTQ, including some targeting sports participation and gender-affirming medical care, fell by the wayside in the final hour. But the year before, lawmakers passed a bill banning hormone treatments care for most transgender minors, and in 2022, they sent Gov. Brian Kemp a bill leaving the decision of whether to include transgender girl athletes to the Georgia High School Association.

Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the state Senate, has put his support behind bills aimed at transgender children. The state House has taken a more skeptical stance on the issue, but House Speaker Jon Burns recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he would support a ban on transgender athletes.

Jeff Graham, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Georgia Equality, said he’s longing for the leadership of former speaker David Ralston, who died in 2022.

“I am carrying around the quote from the late speaker, David Ralston, when the legislation passed two years ago that gave the Georgia High School Association the authority to set rules and regulations that he did not want to see transgender kids targeted. I wish that the level-headed compassion of Speaker Ralston can be brought back to this legislative session in 2025,” he said.

Speaking to reporters after Friday’s hearing, Graham said the number of student athletes directly affected by the bill may be tiny, but such legislation makes transgender people feel targeted and unwanted.

“The goal of the Legislature, I would like to think, is we could find common ground trying to make the world better for all kids in Georgia,” he said. “It’s easy to scapegoat some kids and in this instance, transgender kids, for discrimination, and open the door to make their life worse,” he said.

TBILISI — Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili recently posted a photo of New Year’s decorations at the presidential residence in Tbilisi. “They put a train in front of the Orbeliani Palace,” she wrote on Facebook. “Let’s see who will be leaving.”

On December 14, an electoral college dominated by the ruling Georgian Dream party is expected to choose Mikheil Kavelashvili, a 53-year-old former footballer and right-wing populist, as Georgia’s next president. The inauguration is set to take place on December 29.

But with Georgia rocked by ongoing anti-government protests, the 72-year-old Zurabishvili, whose term ends this year, has said she isn’t going anywhere.

“There will be no inauguration and my mandate continues,” the incumbent said on November 30.

The Diplomat Vs. The Footballer

The backgrounds and political outlooks of the two politicians couldn’t be more different.

Zurabishvili was born in France to a family of Georgian exiles who fled the Red Army invasion in 1921. She served for decades as a French diplomat before becoming the Georgian foreign minister in 2004. As her political star rose, she appealed more to urban and progressive segments of Georgian society, a consistent advocate of the country’s integration with the European Union.

Not for the first time, she has sided with protesters who for over two weeks have taken to the streets across the country to protest the government putting Georgia’s EU accession on hold. The authorities have responded with a violent crackdown, targeting protesters, opposition activists, and journalists.

While initially endorsed by Georgian Dream for her successful presidential run in 2018, Zurabishvili has been a thorn in the ruling party’s side. Although officially a nonpartisan president limited to a ceremonial role, Zurabishvili has criticized Georgian Dream for its increasingly authoritarian stance.

Whereas Zurabishvili has frequently portrayed herself as a champion of democracy, Kavelashvili has portrayed himself as a champion of the people. Presenting himself as a Georgian everyman, Kavelashvili is a celebrated footballer who had a successful career abroad playing in Switzerland, England, and Russia.

After entering parliament in 2016, Kavelashvili went on to found the People’s Power party, a more radical, anti-Western offshoot of Georgian Dream. Appealing to the country’s conservative rural heartlands, he frequently contrasts “traditional Georgian values” with what he sees as the degeneracy of Western liberalism and has taken a hard line on immigration and national sovereignty.

Kavelashvili has the backing of Georgian Dream and the party’s uber-powerful founder, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. “He is the best embodiment of a Georgian man. A wonderful husband and father of four children,” Ivanishvili said when he presented the presidential candidate on November 27.

Disputed Elections

At the heart of the standoff is the dispute over the country’s recent parliamentary elections. In an October 26 vote, Georgian Dream declared a resounding victory, winning 54 percent, while the four collaborating opposition forces received 38 percent.

International observers and the opposition cried foul, saying the result was flawed, with widespread irregularities and ballot fraud. Zurabishvili has said the elections were “stolen” with the help of Russia and sees the parliament — and thus the electoral college — as illegitimate.

Zurabishvili is the last Georgian president to be voted directly by the people. In 2017, Georgia adopted a new system of indirect presidential elections as part of constitutional changes ostensibly aimed at strengthening parliamentary democracy, reducing political polarization, and aligning with European norms where presidents are usually restricted to ceremonial roles.

Critics of the reform, however, say it’s a power grab by Georgian Dream, designed to weaken political competition and erode potential checks on parliamentary and governmental authority.

Mounting Tensions

Since taking office in 2012, Georgian Dream has faced growing criticism for its creeping authoritarianism, including accusations of election tampering, judicial interference, and media repression. Over the last year, Georgia has been criticized by the United States and the European Union for its controversial anti-LGBT and “foreign agent” laws, which were both enthusiastically endorsed by Kavelashvili.

As thousands of Georgians continue to protest in the capital, facing brutal police tactics, there have been unsubstantiated rumors floating around that Zurabishvili was going to barricade herself inside the presidential palace. Many protesters fear police are going to start clearing Rustaveli Avenue, where the demonstrations are centered, ahead of the election.

The vote is expected to begin at 9 a.m. local time on December 14, with the results announced that day. While there are members of the opposition in the electoral college, they are refusing to take part. And since there is only one candidate, there is no possibility of a second round.

This isn’t the first time Georgia has faced such a situation. After being elected as the country’s first president in May 1991, Zviad Gamsakhurdia was ousted in a coup. In exile, he refused to cede power or acknowledge the new government led by Eduard Shevardnadze, the Glasnost-era Soviet foreign minister.

In 1993, Gamsakhurdia returned to Georgia, leading an unsuccessful armed resistance but died later that year under mysterious circumstances.

The result of the December 14 presidential vote will almost certainly not be recognized by Georgia’s opposition or civil society activists. While Kavelashvili and the ruling party remain popular among some Georgians — especially those untouched by the demonstrations — Zurabishvili has the support of the protesters, whose violent treatment by riot police has shocked many in Georgia.

“I am protected by the people who are out on the streets,” she told the BBC on December 1. “I think that the ruling party is very isolated today and it will become even more isolated.”