Story at a glance
- A bill that would ban transgender female students from participating in girls’ athletic teams in Indiana passed the state’s Senate.
- Now Gov. Eric Holcomb will decide if the bill should be signed into law.
- Indiana would join a growing list of states attempting to create restrictions on the rights of transgender young people.
Indiana lawmakers gave their final approval to a bill that would ban transgender girls from participating in school sports that match their gender identity.
House Bill 1041 passed the Indiana state Senate on Tuesday and is now headed for Gov. Eric Holcomb’s (R) desk. The bill would ban K-12 students who were assigned male at birth but identify as female from participating in girls’ athletic teams — but it doesn’t stop students who were assigned female at birth but identify as male from playing on boys’ athletic teams.
Holcomb hasn’t officially confirmed if he intends to sign the bill, but did tell reporters that he “adamantly” agrees that “boys should be playing boys sports and girls should be playing girls sports, and mixed sports should be just that,” according to The Associated Press.
If the bill becomes laws, Indiana would join a growing list of states that have enacted or attempted to enact restrictions on the rights of transgender young people, ranging from bans on youth sports to blocking access to medical care.
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Georgia, for example, recently passed a bill that would also ban transgender students from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity. In Alabama, lawmakers advanced a bill that would prohibit transgender students from using school restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.
The Human Rights Campaign said in a statement following Indiana’s advancement of House bill 1041 that if it were signed into law, it would effectively ban transgender youth from taking part in sports alongside their peers.
“Trans kids – like all kids – just want to be able to play with their friends. This regressive and damaging legislation hurts transgender youth and doesn’t address any actual problem,” said Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel at HRC.
Oakley went on to say that Indiana lawmakers are only “looking to satisfy” national anti-LGBTQ forces at the expense of transgender youths’ well-being.
The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and mental health group for LGBTQ young people, also issued a statement emphasizing how the Indiana bill can cause real harm to young transgender people in the state.
“This has been a tough week in an already tough month in an already tough year for trans youth across the U.S. Lawmakers must take into account the devastating impact that these bills themselves – and the ugly debates surrounding them – are having on a group of young people already at disproportionate risk for bullying and suicide. We urge the governor to reject this bill and focus on any number of the real issues impacting Indiana,” said Sam Ames, director of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project.
In 2021 survey data from The Trevor Project, more than half — 52 percent — of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered suicide in the past year, while 1 in 5 attempted suicide.
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