KY bill would limit transgender athletes. Critics say it’s part of a ‘slate of hate.’

The chairman of the Kentucky General Assembly’s Senate Education Committee has signed on as a co-sponsor of a bill that would require high school and college athletes to play on teams based on their biological sex as indicated by their original birth certificate.

State Senator Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, explained why he is co-sponsoring Senate Bill 114, known as the “Save Women’s Sports Act” filed by state Senator Robby Mills, R-Henderson, but didn’t say whether he would call it for a vote.

“This particular issue has become a frequent topic of discussion among constituents throughout my district,” Wise told the Herald-Leader Monday. “As the subject continues to be addressed in legislatures across the country, I’d imagine discussions will heat up here in Kentucky. It is possible the bill will be heard in committee, but no determination has been made at this time. “

Mills didn’t immediately comment.

Chris Hartman, executive director of Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group, said the bill “is incredibly troubling to us.”

“It is part of one of the worst coordinated political attacks on LGBTQ people in recent memory in Kentucky,” Hartman said. “Senate Bill 114 is part of a slate of hate of several anti-LGBTQ bills that target particularly the transgender community and trans youth in Kentucky.”

The legislation says that an athletic activity or sport designated as girls or womens shall not be open to male students. It says during an athletic activity or sporting event, including practices, access to athletic facilities designated for the exclusive use of a single sex, such as a locker room, shall be restricted to members of the designated sex, coaches and staff, and emergency responders.

Under the bill, If the biological sex on a student’s official birth certificate has been edited since originally issued or the biological sex of the student is subject to an official challenge, a medical examination will be required establishing a student’s sex.

The state board of education and the KHSAA would not be allowed to entertain a complaint, open an investigation, or take any other adverse action against a school for maintaining separate interscholastic or intramural athletic teams, activities, or sports for students of the female sex.

Students whose “bodily privacy” is violated as a direct result of the school’s action could file a lawsuit under Senate Bill 114.

“Trans kids want to play sports for all the same reasons that everyone else does, to build social skills, to be part of a team, to achieve success and denying them that opportunity is detrimental to their education, to their growth, to their self-esteem and this is the type of thing that leads to the disproportionately high suicide rates among trans youth” said Hartman.

Hartman said the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s current guidelines for trans youth participating in youth sports are so strict that he doubts that any transgender kids in Kentucky are currently able to compete in the sport that matches their gender identity.

The legislation, he said, “will put up a permanent barrier that says that they can never participate in the sports that match their gender identity and that’s just wrong.”

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association recognizes the ability of transgender student-athletes to participate in interscholastic sports and sport activities free from unlawful discrimination based on sexual orientation, its policy says. Each student-athlete can participate according to the gender listed on their birth certificate unless they were legally reassigned. Reassignment can be demonstrated in several ways under the KHSAA policy.

KHSAA spokesman Joe Angolia said he did not have numbers on how many transgender students are participating in high school athletics in Kentucky.

“The Commissioner, KHSAA Board of Control and Staff have all helped work with our member schools, as well as the Kentucky Board of Education, to craft the current policy and feel it addresses many of these issues,” KHSAA General Counsel Chad Collins said in reference to Senate Bill 114. “At the same time, we certainly respect the authority of the Kentucky General Assembly and always stand ready to have a dialogue in an effort to continue to improve education-based athletics across the Commonwealth.”

Hartman said other bills included in what he describes as the “slate of hate” are House Bill 132, sponsored by David Hale, R-Wellington, a bill that would put limitations on which public school bathroom transgender students could use and House Bill 321, filed by Savannah Maddox, R- Dry Ridge, which would prohibit medical professionals from performing surgeries or prescribing medications to a minor with the intent to alter the sex the child was assigned at birth. That bill would create a Class D felony and a civil cause of action for violations of the law.