Maryland
Md. House committee kills bill to ban transgender kids from sports teams
FreeState Justice said measure ‘specifically’ targeted trans girls
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.”
Maryland
4th Circuit dismisses lawsuit against Montgomery County schools’ pronoun policy
Substitute teacher Kimberly Polk challenged regulation in 2024
A federal appeals court has ruled Montgomery County Public Schools did not violate a substitute teacher’s constitutional rights when it required her to use students’ preferred pronouns in the classroom.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision it released on Jan. 28 ruled against Kimberly Polk.
The policy states that “all students have the right to be referred to by their identified name and/or pronoun.”
“School staff members should address students by the name and pronoun corresponding to the gender identity that is consistently asserted at school,” it reads. “Students are not required to change their permanent student records as described in the next section (e.g., obtain a court-ordered name and/or new birth certificate) as a prerequisite to being addressed by the name and pronoun that corresponds to their identified name. To the extent possible, and consistent with these guidelines, school personnel will make efforts to maintain the confidentiality of the student’s transgender status.”
The Washington Post reported Polk, who became a substitute teacher in Montgomery County in 2021, in November 2022 requested a “religious accommodation, claiming that the policy went against her ‘sincerely held religious beliefs,’ which are ‘based on her understanding of her Christian religion and the Holy Bible.’”
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in January 2025 dismissed Polk’s lawsuit that she filed in federal court in Beltsville. Polk appealed the decision to the 4th Circuit.
By PAMELA WOOD | Dan Cox, a Republican who was resoundingly defeated by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore four years ago, has filed to run for governor again this year.
Cox’s candidacy was posted on the Maryland elections board website Friday; he did not immediately respond to an interview request.
Cox listed Rob Krop as his running mate for lieutenant governor.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Maryland
Expanded PrEP access among FreeState Justice’s 2026 legislative priorities
Maryland General Assembly opened on Jan. 14
FreeState Justice this week spoke with the Washington Blade about their priorities during this year’s legislative session in Annapolis that began on Jan. 14.
Ronnie L. Taylor, the group’s community director, on Wednesday said the organization continues to fight against discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS. FreeState Justice is specifically championing a bill in the General Assembly that would expand access to PrEP in Maryland.
Taylor said FreeState Justice is working with state Del. Ashanti Martinez (D-Prince George’s County) and state Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Arundel and Howard Counties) on a bill that would expand the “scope of practice for pharmacists in Maryland to distribute PrEP.” The measure does not have a title or a number, but FreeState Justice expects it will have both in the coming weeks.
FreeState Justice has long been involved in the fight to end the criminalization of HIV in the state.
Governor Wes Moore last year signed House Bill 39, which decriminalized HIV in Maryland.
The bill — the Carlton R. Smith Jr. HIV Modernization Act — is named after Carlton Smith, a long-time LGBTQ activist known as the “mayor” of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood who died in 2024. FreeState Justice said Marylanders prosecuted under Maryland Health-General Code § 18-601.1 have already seen their convictions expunged.
Taylor said FreeState Justice will continue to “oppose anti anti-LGBTQ legislation” in the General Assembly. Their website later this week will publish a bill tracker.
The General Assembly’s legislative session is expected to end on April 13.
LGBTQ groups question US health agreements with African countries
European Parliament resolution backs ‘full recognition of trans women as women’
Deon Jones speaks about D.C. Department of Corrections bias lawsuit settlement
Home is where the heart is
‘Heated Rivalry’ fandom exposes LGBTQ divide in Baltimore
McPike wins special election for Va. House of Delegates
Shooter who killed 7 people inside Canada school was transgender
Just when you think Trump can’t sink any lower, he does
Russia’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown takes absurd turn
