This week, transgender athletes in the state of Texas suffered a major blow this week as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that will further limit their rights to compete in the state.
On Thursday, Abbott signed legislation that will now ban transgender female athletes from competing in women’s collegiate athletic events for public institutions in the state.
Senate Bill 15 – which proponents have called the “Save Women’s Sports Act” – will add to Texas’ legislation against the transgender athletic community. This new legislation comes in addition to a law already on the books since 2021 that requires all public school teams through high school “to be designated by students’ sex assigned at birth.”
“Today is an important day for female athletes across the state of Texas, including little girls who aspire to one day compete in college sports,” Abbott said Thursday according to Fox News.
It’s a major blow for transgender rights in the country, and people were not happy about it on social media.
me, personally, I feel like the government shouldn't be passing laws about who's allowed to play silly little games with who, but that's just me https://t.co/EoGDvXAymU
— DJenius1 (@DJenius1) June 15, 2023
With this and the outlawing of diversity offices in state schools, Texas further backslides into the gutter. I'm ashamed the lengths our government goes to discriminate against a tiny minority of it's population. Incredibly petty and despicable behavior. https://t.co/k4HEsAtYAw
— Lady Lich ☀️🏳️⚧️ (@LichCrimson) June 16, 2023
It's absolutely insane seeing people care more about their precious sports then stuff that's actually impacting human lives, children's lives, like idk maybe uh
Gun regulation. https://t.co/WYzyLsA42n
— Yaki 🔜 Texas Showdown 2024 (@TaiyakiPress) June 16, 2023
I never see the suggestion of making a third competition category for transgender athletes
Given the social contagion forces at play, there is a likelihood we will see more and more trans athlete so there should be plenty in every state for their own competition category https://t.co/Im1pQmhbq2
— BTCDavid (@BitcoinDavid21) June 16, 2023
If Joseph R. McCarthy was alive today he could see real communist amongst us! What’s going on in the government today is totally unbelievable. The country is being undermined by one deranged man and a major news network that’s injecting powerful negativity into our democracy. https://t.co/nvI1Eq8PAV
— Carlton Law Richards (@crjr4u) June 16, 2023
Passing this garbage in a country where there's maybe few hundred NCAA trans athletes. You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning then seeing a trans athlete in Texas. These people are sick https://t.co/lnRZda4ct4
— Billionaires Are Parasites🌹 (@SwingLeftBR) June 16, 2023
“This Act applies to any intercollegiate athletic competition sponsored or authorized by a public institution of higher education that occurs on or after the effective date of this Act,” the legislation states, according to Fox News.
The new legislation will go into effect no earlier than Sept. 1.
[Fox News]