Pennsylvania House Committee To Vote On Bill To Ban Transgender Women From Female Sports
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A bill to ban transgender women in Pennsylvania from playing on women's sports teams is up for a vote in the state House Education Committee in Harrisburg on Tuesday.
The bill is controversial because some see it as discriminatory.
State Rep. Valerie Gaydos, an Aleppo Republican, is one of the authors of House Bill 972 to ban males who have transitioned to women from playing girls and women's sports in school or college. She says it's the gender at birth that counts.
"If you're a biological boy, you play on the boys team. If you're a biological girl, you play on the girls team," Gaydos told KDKA political editor Jon Delano on Monday.
"Biological males, whether you take hormones or not, have a competitive advantage, a physical advantage. Men, boys, biological boys have bigger body parts. They have bigger lungs. They have bigger heads. They have bigger hands, generally speaking," Gaydos said.
Gaydos cites Lia Thomas, a transgender woman from the University of Pennsylvania who just won an NCAA women's swimming championship.
"You're having these biological males jump on women's teams and they're winning. They're winning. It's just unfair," says Gaydos.
When Gaydos first introduced this bill last year, KDKA spoke with Maria Montano of Beechview, who transitioned from male to female in her early 20s.
"It targets trans girls, trans young women and singles them out for discrimination," Montano said.
WATCH: Jon Delano reports
Montano says there's no evidence that transgender women are better at sports on average, citing her own example as an athlete in the professional world's disc golf championship.
"I finished like 35th or 36th place. The top women of the world absolutely crushed me," she says.
Montano says transgender women have been allowed to compete in the Olympics since 2004. And in all those years, only one has qualified to compete.
"It's a hateful bill. Kids just want to be kids, and they just want to belong," says Dena Stanley, founder of TransYounitingPGH.
Stanley, who once played high school football as a male before she transitioned, is the founder of a group to help people transition. She says there's no evidence that transgender women are outcompeting other women.
"This misinformation, that causes folks to see folks on the street and just attack them," says Stanley.
Stanley has this message to state lawmakers.
"Stop attacking trans kids. Stop attacking children. Let them play. Let them be kids. And stop using us as your pawns in your games, your political games," Stanley said.
Gaydos says she hopes the House Education Committee will approve this bill and send it to the House floor.
"I do think putting this before the full House, all 203 members, is the opportunity to have more input," Gaydos said.
Right now, as for high schools, the PIAA allows principals to decide a student's gender, while the NCAA lets a trans female play on a women's team after one year of hormones.
With respect to this bill, Governor Tom Wolf says he will veto it if it gets to his desk.