The GOP-led House of Representatives on Jan. 14 passed legislation banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports at federally-funded schools, marking the second time in as many years that the lower house has passed a discriminatory bill targeting the rights of trans and non-binary student-athletes.
The anti-trans bill passed 218-206, mostly along party lines, though Democrats Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar, both of Texas, voted in favor of the bill, while Democrat Don Davis of North Carolina voted “present.” The legislation faces long odds in the Senate — even under GOP control — since it would require overcoming the 60-vote threshold to prevent a filibuster.
The legislation would target Title IX, according to the bill’s text, which states that “for purposes of determining compliance with title IX of such Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
Ahead of the bill’s passage, members of Congress sparred over the bill, with Democrats arguing that the bill could lead to invasive enforcement mechanisms and a broader attack on girls.
“I’m a mom of two teens. I’m a former teacher. I know what kids are going through in school,” out lesbian Congressmember Becca Balint of Vermont said on the House floor. “They are already self-conscious about their bodies. They just want to be on the soccer field with their friends. They certainly do not want to be humiliated by members of Congress. So, come on, let’s talk about what enforcement looks like, because you guys, you don’t want to talk about it. We know there is only one logical conclusion to this. This is interrogation of young girls. About their bodies. This is asking people to show them what is underneath their underwear.”
The legislation would also require a study by the comptroller general to look at the “benefits” of single-sex sports for girls and women and to determine what would be “lost” by allowing trans individuals to participate in sports. The study, the legislation states, “shall document the adverse psychological, developmental, participatory, and sociological results to girls of allowing males to compete…”
House Speaker Mike Johnson framed the legislation as a “common sense” bill to “keep biological men out of women’s sports,” and he chided Democrats for voting against it.
“The American people sent a clear message in November,” Johnson said in a written statement. “They want a return to common sense, but Democrats are ignoring them.”
The bill, dubbed the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025,” was carried by Republican Congressmember Greg Steube of Florida. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, a longtime college football coach, carries the bill in the upper chamber.
The Congressional Equality Caucus labeled the bill as the “Child Predator Empowerment Act” and blasted Republicans for passing the legislation instead of focusing on pressing issues facing the American people.
“Once again, Republicans have proved that their obsession with attacking trans people trumps lowering the cost of groceries or investing in our schools,” California Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said in a written statement. “It’s shameful that one of the first bills to pass the House this Congress limits transgender girls’ ability to be a part of their school’s community, prevents kids from playing with their friends, and could force any girl to answer invasive personal questions about their bodies and face humiliating physical inspections to “prove” that they’re a girl. Speaker Johnson and the Republican Conference are more focused on passing legislation that targets transgender children for exclusion and puts all girls at risk than working to address the problems impacting Americans daily.”
The bill passed just one day after more than 400 LGBTQ and civil rights groups signed a letter encouraging lawmakers to oppose the legislation because it would “harm women and girls” while also undermining civil rights for all students. The letter featured several New York-based groups, including Advocates for Children of New York, the Brooklyn Community Pride Center, and Equality New York’s Buffalo chapter.
Advocates for Trans Equality (a4TE), which was founded last year in a merger between the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund and National Center for Trans Equality, described the bill as an “unconscionable attack” on trans girls and women and stressed that anti-trans lawmakers “are ignoring the people’s business to take up the hateful agenda of right-wing extremists and target youth who just want to play sports with their friends.”
“It is not the government’s role to replace parents and intervene in the lives of our young people,” the organization’s executive director, Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, said in a written statement. “They should be instead focused on ensuring that every student, no matter who they are or where they live, can be safe and respected at school. “This is an attack on Title IX. Extremist lawmakers emboldened by the incoming administration plan to systematically weaken civil rights protections for all Americans, and they are starting right now.”
