Idaho legislator Rep. Barbara Ehardt (R-Idaho Falls) says that she is planning on introducing legislation that would ban transgender individuals from competing on high school sports teams that do not correspond with their birth sex.
While claiming that the legislation has “nothing to do” with anti-LGBT legislation, Ehardt is calling on the Idaho legislature to pass the bill which calls transgender women “those biological boys, those men”.
Ehardt says that “Boys and men will not be able to take the place of girls and women in sports because it’s not fair. We cannot physically compete against boys and men. The inherent biological, scientific advantages that boys and men have over girls and women, even if they were to take hormones, even if they were to spend a couple of years on estrogen, that’s not going to replace the inherent biological advantages that boys and men have”.
She asserts that the bill is not discriminatory because the wording of the bill focuses on DNA and chromosomes, meaning transgender men also cannot compete on men’s teams, so it is not singling out transgender women.
Similar legislation attempting to dictate what trans people can and cannot do have been popping up around the country. Most famously “bathroom bills” restricting trans people’s access to the public restroom of their choice. Many of these legislative attempts have been blocked or overturned by courts after being ruled unconstitutional.
Ehardt tried to introduce similar legislation in the 2019 session but said that the bill was not finalized then. After 18 months she believes it is finally ready.
Sources: East Idaho News 1/21/20; NBC News 3/30/17
