Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023
Floor Speech
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chairman, I claim time to speak in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chairman, this amendment perpetuates false arguments that allowing transgender girls to participate on school sports teams will undermine the well-being of cisgender girls.
Again, my friends across the aisle are conflating and confusing the issue here. They want to talk about the struggles and the challenges we have with determining fair competition in elite sports, but what we are talking about here is a bill, the underlying bill, which would completely ban participation of all transgender kids across our country.
As I said, the example in Utah, 75,000 high school students competing in high school sports, four transgender kids, one competing as a female. This seems wholly, wholly, disproportionate to the so-called problem. What is disproportionate is this proposal to completely ban transgender students from sports.
Now, I want to say something here. The other side does not even want to acknowledge that transgender kids exist; that transgender people exist.
Nevertheless, the legislation and this amendment target transgender kids, and they do it in a very, very insidious way. They will say, oh, transgender doesn't appear in this bill. But let's not kid ourselves that the very intent is to harm and stigmatize, isolate, make them pariahs, and this is simply wrong.
Look, I am not a scientist. I was an English teacher most of my time before I got into Congress. I do know the harm that comes with this insidious use of language, by not even granting the dignity of existing, not even granting the dignity of the existence of trans kids and trans people. That is what the other side is doing.
It is going to be harmful. How is it harmful? This mere debate has traumatized trans kids and their families across the country. Eighty- five percent of transgender and nonbinary youth say that the debates around anti-trans bills have negatively impacted their mental health.
According to a 2022 survey, nearly one in five transgender and nonbinary youth attempted suicide in the past year, and 45 percent of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. These statistics are real. They represent real vulnerable kids. I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment and to oppose the underlying bill.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentlewoman from South Carolina for a colloquy to answer some questions.
I know the gentlewoman to be open-minded about LGB people, but I wonder if she has ever sat down and met with any of her transgender constituents.
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Mr. TAKANO. Reclaiming my time. So the gentlewoman does recognize that transgender kids and transgender people exist.
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Mr. TAKANO. Reclaiming my time. So it is curious to me that the gentlewoman has not included even the word ``transgender.'' She uses the word ``biological male,'' and the study that she has put forward studies the harm done to cisgender girls by having them compete with biological males. It does not even provide the guidance to the studiers to study what may happen with cisgender girls and the competition with transgender girls. So the results of this study are not going to even determine what the challenges may be.
Look, the mere fact that the author of this amendment is asking to study this shows that there is no evidence that there is any harm here.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chairman, again, the assertion that the underlying bill is about protecting women and girls couldn't be farther from the truth. We know that in States that have inclusive policies toward trans girls and women in sports, that the overall participation of girls and women is greater.
Those States that have enacted bans on transgender participation have seen a decrease in overall participation. Why might that be?
Well, we know that in Utah, that some parents of cisgender girls who have seen their girls lose in competition have questioned whether or not the winner is actually a girl because of nonconformance to perceived notions of femininity. Authorities in that State have actually subjected the winner, the girl who was a winner, to an examination of documents dating back to her kindergarten days in order for her to prove that she was indeed a female.
Think about the chilling effect that this has had on other women and girls from participating in sports. The teenage years are a difficult time enough but think about what this ban has imposed.
Let me tell you, Republicans are not satisfied with just banning transgender girls from competition in athletics. What this amendment will do is to accomplish full exclusion of transgender people, not only from athletic programs, but from any other auxiliary programming that a student would want to participate with their teams.
Not only are they interested in assuring that transgender girls and women can't enjoy the benefits of the athletic aspects of team sports, but they also want to make sure that trans students who, statistically speaking, already face intense marginalization in school environments are deprived of the opportunity to make friends, to be included, and just have fun.
No wonder more than half of transgender kids have thought about suicide or have attempted it.
This amendment is the example that represents the whole. The nature of this amendment is what is at the heart of this bill. It is not about competition. It is about participation.
I wish that they would stop using examples of difficulties in elite competitions as a justification to harm transgender kids all across this Nation and exclude them not only from sports but also exclude them from sports banquets or special study halls that may be associated with athletes.
This is an insidious amendment. It is an insidious bill. It is contrary to our values as Americans.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chair, I would just say let's allow, at the very elite level, organizations like the International Olympic Committee and the NCAA to make determinations of what constitutes fairness, not impose the Federal Government where it is not necessary. Transgender athletes have been welcomed into participation for 20 years now and only recently has it become a major issue in our country.
Mr. Chair, where have the Republicans' concerns about government overreach gone? Where have the concerns about allowing States and voluntary associations to solve problems before the Federal Government is brought to bear gone?
Certainly, we should not be using one or two examples at the elite sports level to affect the participation of transgender girls and women all across our country in high schools and colleges.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chair, I would say that organizations like the NCAA and the International Olympic Committee can resolve these issues about fairness in competition, but we should not neglect the greater value of participation, connecting to others in society and welcoming everybody into the community. This bill and this amendment do not do that, and they put our transgender kids in harm's way.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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