On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Senate approved a bill banning transgender athletes from women’s and girl’s sports at the K-12 and collegiate levels. The legislation passed by a vote of 32-18, with all 27 Republicans and five Democrats voting in favor.
The bill previously passed the Senate in 2022, but was vetoed by former Governor Tom Wolf when it reached his desk.
This latest attempt aligns with the Trump Administration’s efforts to “keep men out of women’s sports.” In a statement, State Representative Josh Siegel of Lehigh County said the bill is an “all too familiar strategy of distracting from [Republicans’] complete disregard and indifference for people’s actual pain and hardship.”
Both Siegel and Corinne Goodwin, Executive Director of the Eastern PA Trans Equity Project, expressed concerns about the bill’s impact on both transgender and cisgender female athletes. Legislation like this, Goodwin explained, could lead to stigma, harassment, and potential physical genital examinations for any girl in sports who “is just a little bigger, stronger, or faster than her peers or who does not conform to someone’s standards of femininity.”
Goodwin also referred to the bill as a distraction, highlighting much larger issues in the Lehigh Valley like lack of affordable housing, deteriorating schools, and poor air quality.
The bill isn’t expected to pass the Democrat controlled House. Representative Siegel, who has consistently advocated for transgender rights since taking office, promised to be a part of ensuring the bill would “never see the light of day.”
Even if it did reach the Governor’s desk, Josh Shapiro has promised to veto the legislation.
