A Maryland House of Delegates committee has struck down a bill that sought to bar transgender children from joining school sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

The House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 24 killed the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” which would have required interscholastic or intramural athletic teams or sports sponsored by a public or private school to expressly designate based on biological sex. 

“This bill specifically targets transgender girls because of a false presumption that they have an unfair advantage,” said Jamie Grace Alexander, policy coordinator at FreeState Justice. 

FreeState Justice is a statewide advocacy organization that coalesces direct legal services and policy advocacy to serve the needs of LGBTQ communities in Maryland. 

The bill also suggested that governmental entities, licensing organizations and athletic organizations be barred from “[accepting] a complaint, [investigating], or [taking] any adverse action against a school or county board for maintaining separate [sports] for students of the female sex,” according to the fiscal and policy note. 

Now that it has been voted down, Alexander said that they and other LGBTQ activists can “focus on actual trans-affirming legislation we’ve been working on.”

“These things — [the bill] — are distractions that take energy away from the work we do year round,” they said. 

This recent legislative proposal follows a national trend wherein legal action is being taken to infringe upon the rights of trans children. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week instructed state agencies to investigate families who provide gender-affirming treatments to their children following his opinion that such treatments are a form of “child abuse.”

“Since the beginning of the 2021 legislative session, anti-LGBTQ+ politicians … have sought to turn Texans against their LGBTQ+ neighbors through an onslaught of harmful legislation, inflammatory rhetoric and discredited legal opinions,” Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez told the Washington Blade last week in a statement. 

“They have found it politically advantageous to spread lies about and villainize LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender people, grossly mischaracterizing our lives to paint us as scary caricatures that need to be feared, all in service of securing their re-elections,” said Martinez.

Looking to the future, Alexander said that they and other LGBTQ activists are watching closely for the emergence of any anti-trans legislation.

“The senators who proposed [the Save Women’s Sports Act] are not senators we have relationships with,” they said. “So, we have to be proactive and put protections for trans people ahead of any anti-trans legislation.”