Tulsi Gabbard’s Introduced a Bill Targeting Trans Athletes as She’s Set to Leave Congress – Teen Vogue

Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), the failed 2020 presidential contender, introduced a new bill that critics say is a blatant attempt to legislate anti-transgender discrimination. The so-called Protect Womens Sports Act seeks to dictate that participation in gender-segregated high school and college athletics on the basis of what Gabbard calls biological sex a term frequently used to mean the gender assigned to someone at birth.

Title IX led to a generational shift that impacted countless women, creating life-changing opportunities for girls and women that never existed before, Gabbard wrote in a statement. However, Title IX is being weakened by some states who are misinterpreting Title IX, creating uncertainty, undue hardship, and lost opportunities for female athletes.

Our legislation protects Title IXs original intent which was based on the general biological distinction between men and women athletes based on sex, she continued. It is critical that the legacy of Title IX continues to ensure women and girls in sports have the opportunity to compete and excel on a level playing field.

If it somehow became federal law, Gabbards bill could make it impossible for trans women to participate in womens sports. The bill resembles state-level efforts to legislate trans exclusion from sports. School athletics have become one of the latest legal battlegrounds in the conservative war on trans people, which is itself an incarnation of a larger long-term legal movement targeting LGBTQ+ people. Support for those efforts from inside the government is nothing new.

For the bill, Gabbard partnered with Representative Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), one of the House Republicans to offer his support to President Donald Trumps latest effort at an attempted coup.

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Gabbard, who made herself a Democratic Party pariah earlier this year by neglecting to vote to impeach Trump, has a history that LGBTQ+ communities have raised concerns about. As Teen Vogue reported back in January 2019, when Gabbard entered the 2020 Democratic primary: In the early 2000s, she worked with her fathers anti-gay organization, a fact that is generating some attention, as CNN reported. As Gabbard was coming of age (she was first elected at 21), it was in the shadow of her fathers work to advocate for conversion therapy and pass a Hawaiian constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. CNN noted that Gabbard has since apologized to Hawaiian LGBTQ+ activists and reversed her position favoring traditional marriage (aka, banning gay marriage).

Gabbard is in the final days of her current term as the representative for Hawaiis second district after deciding not to run for re-election in 2020. Her seat will be filled by Representative-elect Kai Kahele, who will be the second-ever Native Hawaiian to represent the state in Congress.

Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Anti-Trans Laws Are Preventing Trans Women From Playing on Womens Sports Teams

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Tulsi Gabbard's Introduced a Bill Targeting Trans Athletes as She's Set to Leave Congress - Teen Vogue