The New Hampshire House voted 189-182 to approve legislation that would restrict transgender girls’ participation in female athletic teams at schools and public colleges and universities.
House Bill 1205 would apply to athletic teams sponsored by schools, including interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural and club teams. The legislation covers students in grades 5 through 12 and public colleges and universities, according to the bill’s description.
Under the proposal, teams would have to be identified using one of three categories:
- “Males,” “men” or “boys”;
- “Females,” “women” or “girls”; or
- “Coed” or “mixed.”
Teams designated for females, women or girls could not accept people who were born biologically male, according to the legislation. The bill also would require parents to provide a student’s birth certificate to a school district as evidence of the student’s sex at birth. Students whose birth certificates do not indicate their sex at birth would have to provide other evidence.
Legal provisions
House Bill 1205 would allow a student who alleges that a school failed to comply with the requirements to bring a legal action against the school. The student could seek damages, an injunction and attorney’s fees, according to the bill’s provisions.
The measure also would bar licensing or accrediting organizations, athletic associations and government entities from acting against a school because it separates teams by gender. Those organizations and entities could not entertain a complaint, open an investigation or take other adverse action on that basis, the bill says.
Supporters described the measure as a women’s rights issue. They said transgender girls and women who were born biologically male can have a physiological advantage over cisgender female athletes and argued that limiting female teams to cisgender women would preserve the purpose of those teams under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs.
Opponents said the bill would restrict transgender students’ rights to participate in sports. They argued that the measure could put schools in conflict with Title IX rather than bring them into compliance with it.
The House’s approval sends the legislation forward in the General Court. The New Hampshire House has 400 members; the Senate has 24 members.
