The U.S. House of Representatives is under extreme scrutiny from LGBTQ+ rights groups after passing a bill that would effectively ban transgender women and girls from school sports.
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The House voted on the so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 Tuesday after Republicans listed it as priority for early votes, passing with a vote of 218-206. The bill threatens to withhold federal funding from schools that do not comply, and a companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.
The bill is among several policies the GOP has expedited targeting trans people, which would mandate that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 be enforced based on “biological sex" — though it does not define “biological sex" — impacting trans people’s access to bathrooms, locker rooms, and protections from discrimination under the law.
Transgender people are only 0.6 percent of the overall population, according to the Williams Institute, and they make up an even smaller percentage of student athletes — National Collegiate Athletic Association head Charlie Baker told a Senate panel last month that out of 510,000 athletes in U.S. NCAA schools, there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes who currently compete in college sports (0.002 percent).
The legislation has an “intrusive focus on scrutiny of students’ bodies,” according to over 400 human rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and Advocates for Trans Equality. The groups issued an open letter to the legislature in opposition to this and other bills, which they said “invite scrutiny and harassment of any other student perceived by anyone as not conforming to sex stereotypes.”
The groups also called the conservative legislators pushing anti-trans legislation “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” as their “agenda is not about the rights of women and girls.”
“Although the authors of the legislation represent themselves as serving the interests of cisgender girls and women, this legislation does not address the longstanding barriers all girls and women have faced in their pursuit of athletics,” the letter states. “Instead of providing for equal facilities, equipment, and travel, or any other strategy that women athletes have been pushing for for decades, the bill cynically veils an attack on transgender people as a question of athletics policy.”
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of Advocates for Trans Equality, released a statement after the vote. He said that politicians going after transgender people are ignoring the issues faced by most Americans to go after trans youth who only want to play sports with their friends and classmates.
"This discriminatory bill is an unconscionable attack on transgender girls and women across the country. Every child deserves a quality education, including the ability to participate in athletic programs. This bill is not motivated out of concern for women and girls in athletics, but animus toward a small group of vulnerable students," Heng-Lehtinen said. "We know that school policy, whether made at the local, state, or national level, has profound impacts on bullying and harassment of LGBTQI+ students. If this bill is signed into law, it makes every school less safe for transgender students and their peers."
Heng-Lehtinen continued: "Extremist lawmakers emboldened by the incoming administration plan to systematically weaken civil rights protections for all Americans, and they are starting right now."
In a statement, HRC President Kelley Robinson called out the legislation as harmful.
“We all want sports to be fair, students to be safe, and young people to have the opportunity to participate alongside their peers,” said Robinson. “But this kind of blanket ban deprives kids of those things. This bill would expose young people to harassment and discrimination, emboldening people to question the gender of kids who don’t fit a narrow view of how they’re supposed to dress or look. It could even expose children to invasive, inappropriate questions and examinations. Participating in sports is about learning the values of teamwork, dedication, and perseverance. And for so many students, sports are about finding somewhere to belong. We should want that for all kids – not partisan policies that make life harder for them.”
This article has been updated to include the result of the House vote and a statement from HRC and Advocates for Trans Equality.