Tennessee governor signs transgender athlete penalty bill

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee will quickly add harsh penalties in opposition to public colleges that permit transgender athletes to take part in women’ sports activities, below laws just lately signed into regulation by Republican Gov. Invoice Lee.

Lee quietly signed the proposal final Friday with out remark. The governor had beforehand signed a measure final 12 months mandating that pupil athletes should show their intercourse matches that listed on the coed’s “unique” beginning certificates. If a beginning certificates was unavailable, then the mother and father should present one other type of proof “indicating the coed’s intercourse on the time of beginning.”

This 12 months, the GOP-controlled Legislature determined so as to add penalties to that ban — which is in impact whilst a lawsuit difficult its constitutionality makes it approach by means of court docket. A trial has been tentatively set for March 2023.

In accordance with the invoice, Tennessee’s Division of Training would withhold a portion of state funds from native faculty districts that fail to find out a pupil’s gender for participation in center or highschool sports activities. The measure doesn’t specify precisely how a lot cash needs to be withheld by the state.

The invoice will go into impact July 1.

“Telling transgender college students that they will’t take part as who they are surely quantities to excluding them from sports activities solely – depriving them of alternatives accessible to their friends and sending the message that they aren’t worthy of a full life,” stated Henry Seaton, ACLU of Tennessee’s transgender justice advocate, in an announcement.

Tennessee lawmakers are additionally advancing a separate invoice that may ban transgender athletes from taking part in feminine faculty sports activities. Republicans have additionally pushed to let academics and college districts use the pronoun {that a} transgender pupil doesn’t desire, exempting academics from going through employment punishment and defending colleges from civil legal responsibility. Each proposals are anticipated to clear the Normal Meeting.

Final 12 months, no different state enacted extra legal guidelines concentrating on transgender individuals than Tennessee. That included banning transgender athletes from taking part in women public excessive or center faculty sports activities.

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