Republican Governor Bill Lee signed a bill last Friday that effectively bans transgender women from competing on college sports teams consistent with their gender identity in Tennessee.

The new law, Senate Bill 2153, “prohibits males from participating in public higher education sports that are designated for females.” The law also requires Tennessee colleges to determine a student-athlete’s gender using the student’s “original” birth certificate.

Every university and college in the state will also be required to adopt and enforce a policy ensuring compliance with the new law. The measure would also prevent any government entity, organization or athletic association from taking “an adverse action” against a school that complies with the law or a student who reports a violation.

“This law sends a horrible message that trans and nonbinary youth can be excluded from the many benefits of participating in sports,” Chris Sanders, the executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, said Friday in a statement issued by the Human Rights Campaign. 

“More broadly, it also stains those who are complicit and creates habits of lawmaking that endanger everyone in Tennessee,” he said. “Legislation crafted from animus and ignorance protects no one.”

Republican Governor Bill Lee signed a bill last Friday that allows for the withholding of state funds from any Tennessee school districts that don’t comply with the trans-exclusionary law Lee signed in March of 2021, Senate Bill 228.

The law, S.B. 228, bans trans children from participating on middle and high school sports teams that match their gender by requiring student athletes to prove the sex they were assigned at birth with an “original” birth certificate or other forms of proof. 

Written into the language of the law, Tennessee’s Department of Education would withhold a portion of state funds from local school districts that fail to determine a student’s gender for participation in middle or high school sports. The measure does not specify exactly how much money should be withheld by the state.

“Telling transgender students that they can’t participate as who they really are amounts to excluding them from sports entirely – depriving them of opportunities available to their peers and sending the message that they are not worthy of a full life,” said Henry Seaton, ACLU of Tennessee’s transgender justice advocate, in a statement.

Last Fall, The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Tennessee and Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit on behalf of Luc Esquivel, a 14-year-old boy from Knoxville, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, arguing that the law is discriminatory and unconstitutional. 

Tennessee lawmakers are also advancing a separate bill that would ban transgender athletes from participating in female college sports. Republicans have also pushed another measure to let teachers and school districts use the pronoun that a transgender student does not prefer, exempting teachers from facing employment punishment and protecting schools from civil liability. Both proposals are expected to clear the General Assembly, the Associated Press reported.

Governor Lee has signed legislation that restricts funding to schools that allow transgender students to play sports.

Trans kids in Tennessee: you’re loved and you’re perfect just as you are. https://t.co/PGKNzyiJ4o

— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) April 24, 2022

A Tennessee Republicans-majority House committee approved a measure Tuesday that would ban all K-12 public schools from using textbooks or materials that “promote, normalize, support or address LGBTQ issues or lifestyles.”

H.B. 800, introduced by state Rep. Bruce Griffey, would ban textbooks and other instructional materials in Tennessee public schools that “promote, normalize, support, or address controversial social issues, such as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender (LGBT) lifestyles.” 

“I think most parents would like the sexuality of our children to be left to our parents in the home and not part of a curriculum,” Griffey told local media after the committee voted to send the measure to the full House for a vote. “And the vast number of parents also feel like materials that promote LGBTQ issues and lifestyles that should be subject to the same restrictions and limitation that there are on religious teachings that are not allowed in our schools.”

The legislation states that LGBTQ+ issues and lifestyles are “inappropriate” and offend a “significant portion” of students, parents and Tennessee residents with “Christian values.”

“The promotion of LGBT issues and lifestyles should be subject to the same restrictions and limitations placed on the teaching of religion in public schools,” the bill reads.

Chris Sanders, the executive director of the statewide LGBTQ+ rights group the Tennessee Equality Project, said the bill would have a “devastating” effect on LGBTQ+ students.  

“It erases them and stigmatizes them. It marginalizes students who have LGBTQ parents. It gives the green light to bullies because it sends the message that there is something wrong with our community, a message that many students are already hearing loud and clear without extra help from the Legislature,” Sanders told the Blade in an email.

According to the legislation, the state’s Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission would be banned from recommending textbooks and instructional materials that “promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender (LGBT) issues or lifestyles” that would be used in public schools. If approved, the measure would apply to textbooks approved by the commission after July 1, ABC News affiliate WATN-TV 24 reported.

A House panel on Tuesday approved sending it to the full chamber for a vote. The bill has not yet made much progress in Senate. https://t.co/1Z8Iyax69A

— ABC24 Memphis (@ABC24Memphis) March 9, 2022