Transgender issues dominate Georgia legislative agenda

Transgender people, particularly youths, remain a subject of Republican-led policy in Georgia, as lawmakers consider several bills that would regulate their interactions with the medical industry and with female athletes.

Both the Georgia Senate and House of Representatives have measures that would ban transgender students born male from female teams in K-12 schools and in higher education.

The Senate has gone further, with legislation that would ban puberty blockers and the use of state resources — health insurance, hospital facilities and medical personnel — for gender-related procedures.

The conflict has made for confusing hearings, where experts disagreed about core facts.

For instance, one doctor testified at a recent hearing on Senate Bill 30 that substances known as puberty blockers have long-term consequences, and that children should not be deciding whether to take them.

“They’re not capable of making life-altering decisions,” she said. “We don’t leave them alone for the weekend.”

Another doctor contradicted her, saying puberty blockers are reversible. He described the legislation as government overreach. The committee passed SB 30 that evening. 

Senate Bill 39, the bill that would ban the use of state resources for gender-change procedures, and Senate Bill 1, which seeks to ban transgender athletes from female athletics, have already passed the full Senate.

The sports measure may get the most traction in the House, which is moving its own legislation on transgender athletes.

House Bill 267 passed the House Education Committee on Friday. Like SB 1, it seeks to ban transgender students born male from participation on female teams — and from using female locker rooms and other shared facilities where nudity occurs.

HB 267 is named the “Riley Gaines Act.” Gaines is a collegiate swimmer whose encounter with a transgender athlete at a 2022 national championship meet at Georgia Tech has been widely reported.

Like other women who’ve testified at recent hearings about that event, Gaines was outraged about having to compete against — and share a locker room with — a transgender woman whom Gaines said was unlike a woman due to “fully intact” male genitalia.

“I am very proud and really honored to lend my name to the fight to reclaim the English language and, of course, to save women’s sports,” Gaines said at the committee hearing on HB 267 Friday.

She introduced herself as a 12-time NCAA All American, a five-time Southeastern Conference (SEC) champion, an SEC record holder in the 200-meter butterfly, a two-time Olympic trial qualifier, and “one of the fastest Americans of all time.”

Yet, she said, she could not beat a transgender athlete at that 2022 event who had previously performed poorly against male swimmers.

Democrats have mostly opposed these measures, asserting that they are not grounded in fact or  science. 

They dismiss arguments that the sports legislation is intended to promote fairness for girls, countering with their own measures that demand equity in “funds, facilities access, equipment, supplies, and other resources.” Senate Bill 41 and House Bill 221 have yet to get a hearing.

For Rep. Karen Lupton, D-Chamblee, the role of religion is a concern. Frontline Policy Action, a Christian group, helped write HB 267, and she saw hypocrisy in that.

“Did Jesus say that the highest expression of faith is to love a neighbor?” Lupton asked at Friday’s hearing, suggesting that HB 267 was not “loving trans kids as you would wish to be treated.”

Frontline Policy Action also helped write SB 1, the Senate’s version of HB 267. And a representative of that group, along with one from the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, have been a consistent presence at these hearings.

The transgender sports issue has proved a popular one for Republicans, who suggest alarming scenarios where these athletes could overpower and even injure females.

The GOP pushed through a bill in 2022 that allowed the Georgia High School Association to ban transgender athletes from teams that don’t match their birth certificates.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in early February that withholds federal funding from schools that do not “oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports.” And the GOP-led U.S. House narrowly passed its own bill with the same goal in January.

Critics contend that Republicans are capitalizing on a handful of well-publicized events, such as the one involving Gaines. They say such high-stakes competitive scenarios are rare, with injury rarer still.

“Why do we keep hearing about Riley Gaines every time we have one of these hearings?” complained one woman at a subcommittee hearing on HB 267.

Critics also say that the GOP initiatives against transgender people will expose an already marginalized group to more bullying, raising their risk of suicide, which is already relatively high.

Republican lawmakers acknowledge they have no data to describe the scope of transgender participation in sports in Georgia, but they and their supporters counter that just one occurrence is too many.

The conflict around the medical regulation of gender may be the most emotional.

Transgender people and parents of transgender children say they are being targeted like gay people were decades ago.

Peter Isbister, an Atlanta-area dad, said at a hearing earlier this month on SB 30 that such measures can’t turn back history. He also implied that they would mainly affect those from lower-income households. He said he can take his child out of state to obtain puberty blockers or other gender-affirming care if necessary.

“My 11-year-old son will get the health care he needs, I am privileged to say, because I will go to the ends of the earth to make sure that he does,” Isbister said. “Why? Because I love him as you love your children, because our love is not different than your love.”

The full Senate has yet to consider SB 30, the bill Isbister was testifying against. But that chamber has already sent SB 39 and SB 1, the sports bill, to the House.

SB 1 may get the most support there, since the House’s version, HB 267, could soon get a vote before the full House.

In a rare appearance that was clearly intended to send a message of support for the bill, House Speaker Jon Burns spoke at Friday’s hearing on the House bill.

The Republican from Newington said he was concerned about transgender participation in sport because he has four granddaughters.

“It’s simple,” he said. “Biological men have an undeniable and scientifically proven advantage against women when it comes to athletic competition.”

Burns said the legislation “levels the playing field and ensures that our daughters and our granddaughters are not robbed of their opportunity for fair and safe competition.”