Former college athlete meets with lawmakers in support of bill
Former college athlete meets with lawmakers in support of bill
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Former college athlete meets with lawmakers in support of bill
A former college athlete joined lawmakers Tuesday in Concord to push Gov. Chris Sununu to sign a bill that would prevent transgender girls in middle and high school from playing on girls’ teams.
House Bill 1205, known as the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” has passed in the House and Senate.
“It’s not just whether it affects five girls or six girls,” said former state Rep. Casey Crane. “It only takes one transgender student, a male student, to hurt a female student or take a scholarship away from a female student.”
Advocates of the bill said transgender athletes will have an unfair advantage over athletes listed as female on their birth certificates and said safety could be called into question.
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“We cannot prioritize inclusion over fairness and safety,” said Riley Gaines, a former college athlete and outspoken advocate for keeping transgender women out of women’s sports. “That’s why sports categories are created in the first place.”
Gaines said she has firsthand knowledge of the impacts on other female athletes after competing against the first transwoman NCAA champion, Lia Thomas.
“I was impacted, and I saw the tears,” Gaines said. “I saw the tears from girls who missed out on being named an all-American by one place.”
The ACLU of New Hampshire opposes the bill and said transgender youth have been relentlessly targeted in what they called a challenging legislative session.
The organization said transgender students want to participate in sports for the same reason everyone does – to be part of a team and challenge themselves – and they deserve to do so without discrimination.
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