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LGBTQ lawmakers, advocacy groups condemn GOP’s anti-trans sports ban

Several members raised their objections to the bill in speeches on the House floor.

Published

10 months ago

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U.S. Capitol (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

LGBTQ and civil rights advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives denounced legislation passed on Tuesday by the Republican majority that would prohibit schools that receive federal education funding from allowing transgender students to participate in girls’ and women’s sports.

As the bill was brought to a vote, ultimately passing 218-206, Democrats slammed the measure in speeches on the House floor, statements from their congressional offices, and social media posts. Among them were the out LGBTQ leadership of the Congressional Equality Caucus and several allies who serve as vice-chairs.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride, the first transgender member of Congress, did not participate in the floor debate.

“Republicans are moving a bill that would ban transgender students of all ages from participating in sports and put all female athletes at risk for harassment and abuse,” U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), who is gay and chairs the Equality Caucus, said in a video on X.

“This sports ban opens the door to subjecting all female students to secret investigations, intrusive demands for medical tests, or reviews of their private medical information,” he said. “This bill is so vaguely written that it could force any girl to undergo invasive medical exams to ‘prove’ that they are a girl.”

The congressman continued, “This bill isn’t about equity. It isn’t about fairness. It is a weaponization of the federal government against a small group of people at the expense of privacy rights for all students.”

“It does nothing to address the real inequities that female athletes face,” Takano said, “and instead overrides the authority of interscholastic and intercollegiate sports federations, as well as athletic organizations.”

Gay U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), who chaired the caucus in the previous Congress and now serves as a co-chair, said “No bill is before us to lower costs for Americans, instead it is a political attempt to divide us as a nation, stigmatizing some kids so some adults can get MAGA merit badges.

“The Republican governor of Utah vetoed a similar piece of legislation after he shared that of the 75,000 students in high school sports in Utah, only four were trans, and only one a girl playing sports. But he also mentioned the very real 86% of trans kids reporting suicidality due to issues like adults stigmatizing kids for political gain.

“Instead, today, the proposed solution is in search of an actual problem. Suggests we somehow ban girls from sports with some sort of process to determine who is a girl. Does this mean hiring potential predators to peek at the private parts of kids in locker rooms?

“Now that sounds like an actual problem to me, creating a solution to a non-existent problem by creating a problem instead of lowering costs for Americans as a sign of an ineffective congressional majority at best, I urge a no vote, and I yield back.”

U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), a lesbian co-chair of the caucus who previously taught middle school history and social studies, delivered an impassioned floor speech, telling Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) “I rise in fierce opposition to this bill”:

“Trans Americans are not the problem. This obsession with monitoring kids’ genitals is absolutely the problem.

“Let’s be clear. This is about kids. My kids, your kids, all kids. All kids, even elementary school kids playing basketball. I’m a mom of two teens. I’m a former teacher. I know what kids are going through in school. They are already self-conscious about their bodies. They just want to be on the soccer field with their friends. They certainly do not want to be humiliated by members of Congress.

“So, come on, let’s talk about what enforcement looks like, because you guys, you don’t want to talk about it. We know there is only one logical conclusion to this. This is interrogation of young girls. About their bodies. This is asking people to show them what is underneath their underwear.”

“That is what we’re talking about. This is the logical conclusion for this bill. So, it’s vile. It’s twisted. They don’t want to talk about the details. It’s an absolute invasion of children’s privacy. Far from protecting anyone, it puts our children at risk. And actually, I urge colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject this government overreach.”

Gay caucus co-chair U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) voiced his opposition to the bill in a post on X.

Other out LGBTQ Democratic co-chairs of the caucus spoke out from the House floor on Tuesday.

An especially comprehensive floor speech came from U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), a caucus co-chair, who began her remarks by proclaiming that “the so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” will “actually do the opposite and make sports more dangerous for women and girls.” The congresswoman said:

“This bill is a ‘one size fits all’ approach that would apply equally to every sport from K-12 schools to colleges. Currently schools, parents, and communities manage youth sports leagues and write rules about who can participate in different sports at different levels. Many states, schools, and athletic associations across the country have allowed equal participation for transgender athletes for years and it’s working just fine. 

“This legislation would revoke all federal funding from schools that include transgender students on girls’ and women’s sports teams. This is damaging and discriminatory to transgender students, who benefit, as all students do, from participating in school sports, and also damaging to the entire school that’s threatened because federal funding benefits all students.

“Keep in mind, colleagues, that as of last month, of the approximately 510,000 athletes who play at the NCAA level – 10 are transgender.  Not 10,000. Ten. Out of 510,000. 

“Transgender students — like all students — they deserve the same opportunity as their peers to learn teamwork, to find belonging, and to grow into well-rounded adults through sports. Childhood and adolescence are important times for growth and development, and sports help students form healthy habits and develop strong social and emotional skills. Sports provide meaningful opportunities for kids to feel confident in themselves and learn valuable life lessons about teamwork, leadership, and communication. Teams provide a place for kids to make friends and build relationships.

“Yet my colleagues across the aisle want to take these opportunities away from certain children; that’s discriminatory and it’s wrong.

“My colleagues are apparently so afraid of people who are different from them that they’ve manufactured false and dangerous presumptions based on outdated stereotypes about transgender people, especially transgender women and girls.

“Additionally, there is no way this so called “protection” bill could be enforced without opening the door to harassment and privacy violations. It opens the door to inspection, not protection, of women and girls in sports. Will students have to undergo exams to “prove” they’re a girl? We are already seeing examples of harassment and questioning of girls who may not conform to stereotypical feminine roles; will they be subject to demands for medical tests and private information? That’s intrusive, offensive, and unacceptable, especially from a party of limited government.

“I want to be very clear, there are real problems harming women and girls in sports, but transgender students are not why. Today, we should be working to solve the real, pervasive problems in athletics that deter women and girls from participating, including sexual harassment and assault, lack of equal resources, and pay inequality.

“We should be working on those issues, and also on the issues that improve the lives of the people we represent back home, like increasing access to affordable health care and housing, lowering costs for everyday Americans, and fighting the climate crisis.

“But instead, here we are again. We’ve seen this time and time again—Republicans fearmonger about the trans community to divert attention from the fact that they have no real solutions to help everyday Americans with the pressing problems they face.

“We must not discriminate against kids because of who they are. Transgender youth already face high hurdles, and research shows that this type of discriminatory policy is associated with declines in mental health and higher suicide risk among already threatened LGBTQI+ youth. We don’t need adults in Congress making things worse.

“As Republican Governor Spencer Cox from Utah said in his veto statement of a similar bill, “When in doubt, however, I always try to err on the side of kindness, mercy, and compassion.”

“Republicans, who have voted consistently against the Violence Against Women Act, who have taken the rights of all women to have control over their own body, who as women are bleeding out in parking lots, now want to pretend today that they care about women,” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.), a vice-chair of the caucus, said in a floor speech.

She continued, “And why? To open up genital inspection on little girls across this country in the name of attacking trans girls. We have two words. Not today.”

These and other House Democrats began calling the legislation the “GOP Child Predator Empowerment Act” to highlight the risk that if it becomes law, the ban could lead to genital exams of minor student-athletes by adults and therefore might help facilitate child sexual abuse.

While the House Education Committee chair, U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), said that birth certificates should be used to settle questions about students’ gender, the bill’s opponents said the absence of a workable enforcement mechanism leaves open a range of ways in which students’ bodies and privacy could be violated.

U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), for instance, who is also a vice-chair, noted in her floor speech that “We have already seen an investigation like this” into a student’s gender “at a high school in Utah, and unsurprisingly, they targeted someone who wasn’t trans.”

She was referring to a case in Utah in 2022 that was kicked off when the parents of athletes who placed second and third in in a state level competition suspected the winner might be trans and filed a complaint the Utah High School Activities Association. Records showed her sex was listed as female since kindergarten.

Advocacy groups

“Just five days after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an anti-transgender sports ban in 2021, a cisgender girl faced brutal harassment from the sidelines at a lacrosse game simply because she had short hair,” the Human Rights Campaign wrote in a press release Tuesday that highlighted many of the same harms addressed by House Democrats who rose in objection to the bill.

“We all want sports to be fair, students to be safe, and young people to have the opportunity to participate alongside their peers,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement included in the release. “But this kind of blanket ban deprives kids of those things. This bill would expose young people to harassment and discrimination, emboldening people to question the gender of kids who don’t fit a narrow view of how they’re supposed to dress or look.

Robinson added, “It could even expose children to invasive, inappropriate questions and examinations. Participating in sports is about learning the values of teamwork, dedication, and perseverance. And for so many students, sports are about finding somewhere to belong.”

“We should want that for all kids – not partisan policies that make life harder for them,” she said.  

HRC also argued that excluding trans women and girls from competitive athletics, denying them the benefits to their physical and mental health that come with participating in sports, can cause tremendous harm since these students “face higher risk of anxiety, depression, and bullying” than their cisgender peers.

In Monday in advance of the debate and floor vote, 405 national and local civil rights, education, and gender justice organizations joined a letter issued on Monday by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights urging House lawmakers to reject the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.

“Although the authors of the legislation represent themselves as serving the interests of cisgender girls and women, this legislation does not address the longstanding barriers all girls and women have faced in their pursuit of athletics,” the letter reads, in part. “Instead of providing for equal facilities, equipment, and travel, or any other strategy that women athletes have been pushing for for decades, the bill cynically veils an attack on transgender people as a question of athletics policy.”

“We are fortunate that transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people are present in our community, and we fully embrace them as members of our community,” the signatories wrote. “As organizations that care deeply about ending sex-based discrimination and ensuring equal educational opportunities, we support laws and policies that protect transgender people from discrimination, including full and equal participation in sports, access to gender-affirming care, access to school facilities, and access to inclusive curriculum. We firmly believe that an attack on transgender youth is an attack on civil rights.”

Along with HRC, which is the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights organization, other advocacy groups that signed the Leadership Conference’s letter also issued separate statements Tuesday following passage of the bill.

Among them was GLAAD, whose President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said “Legislators who voted today in favor of banning transgender girls from participating in school sports should be ashamed of themselves.”

“Right now, gun violence is the number one cause of death to American children, yet extremist lawmakers ignore this reality to push bills that further endanger and isolate LGBTQ youth who just want to be themselves and play with their friends.

“Legislators have an obligation to stand up for all, not just some, of their constituents. Allowing students to participate in sports is about equal opportunity, the ability to make friends and belong, and stay active, healthy and happy. Young transgender people should not have to watch lawmakers debate their basic humanity.

“Legislators must meet with transgender youth, their families, teammates, and coaches who would be harmed by this dangerous legislation; propose ways to protect all youth; and stop pushing anti-LGBTQ discrimination in a phony attempt to protect women and girls. Protect all kids and let them play.”

GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD Law) Senior Director of Transgender and Queer Rights Jennifer Levi said, “It’s disgraceful to see the new Congress make one of its first priorities a sweeping bill that would deny transgender kids of any age the opportunity to play school sports and strip from them the many educational benefits sports provide.”

“Thoughtful policies can successfully balance fairness and inclusion in sports at multiple levels of competition, as local school districts and sports associations have done for many years,” she said. “We appreciate those in Congress who voted against this extreme bill and hope the Senate will recognize that blanket bans imposed by politicians don’t serve athletes, students, or sport.”

Despite the 53-vote GOP majority in the Senate, Republicans will need seven Democrats to support the sports ban for the bill to pass, which is unlikely. Still, President-elect Donald Trump promised to intervene with executive action, which would likely mean directing the U.S. Department of Education to investigate schools that allow trans women and girls to compete in sports for violations of federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination.

He and the conservatives backing the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act believe athletes whose birth sex is female have actionable Title IX claims on the grounds that they are unfairly disadvantaged when competing against their transgender counterparts, even though the research on this question is mixed.

In a fundraising email, the LGBTQ Victory Fund denounced the effort by House Republicans to “rewrite Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions,” adding that “The author of this hateful bill” U.S. Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) “even went so far as to claim trans people and trans identities are made up, before launching into a transphobic rant!”

Speaking from the House floor on Tuesday, the GOP congressman said, “Our culture and civilization continue to be subject to the perverse lie that there are more than two genders or that men can be women and women can be men.”

Allison Scott, director of impact and innovation at the Campaign for Southern Equality, said: “The passage of HB28 by the U.S. House of Representatives is a cruel and unjust abuse of power that targets a very small number of young people who just want to play school sports with their friends.

“It’s appalling that one of the first priorities of this new Congress is to bully children with the weight of a federal law. I want to send a clear message to transgender young people and their families: No law can strip you of your inherent dignity and humanity, and we will never stop working alongside you and a huge community nationwide to ensure all people can live authentically and with joy.

“The Senate should do the right thing here, refuse to exclude and marginalize children, and reject this legislation.”

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Congress

MTG resigns after years of anti-LGBTQ attacks amid Trump feud

Greene’s abrupt departure adds fresh uncertainty to an already fractured Republican Party.

Published

4 days ago

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November 22, 2025

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Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly announced her resignation from Georgia's 14th Congressional District late Friday night on social media. (Screen capture insert via Forbes Breaking News YouTube)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Friday that she is resigning from Congress.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the Georgia 14th Congressional District representative announced her sudden decision to resign from office.

The nearly 11-minute-long video shows Rep. Greene stating she will step down from her role representing one of Georgia’s most Republican districts on Jan. 5, 2026. She cited multiple reasons for this decision, most notably her very public separation from Trump.

In recent weeks, Greene — long one of the loudest and most supportive MAGA members of Congress — has butted heads with the president on a slew of topics. Most recently, she supported pushing the DOJ to release the Epstein Files, becoming one of only four Republicans to sign a discharge petition, against Trump’s wishes.

She also publicly criticized her own party during the government shutdown. Rep. Greene had oddly been supportive of Democratic initiatives to protect healthcare tax credits and subsidies that were largely cut out of national healthcare policy as a result of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” passed in July.

“What I am upset over is my party has no solution,” Greene said in October.

Trump recently said he would endorse a challenger against the congresswoman if she ran for reelection next year, and last week went as far as to declare, “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Green is a disgrace to our GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY!” on his Truth Social platform.

Trump told ABC News on Friday night that Greene’s resignation is “great news for the country,” and added that he has no plans to speak with Greene but wishes her well.

Despite her recent split with the head of the Republican Party, Rep. Greene has consistently taken a staunch stance against legislation supporting the LGBTQ community — notably a hardline “no” on any issue involving transgender people or their right to gender-affirming care.

Rep. Greene has long been at odds with the LGBTQ community. Within her first month in office, she criticized Democrats’ attempts to pass the Equality Act, legislation that would bar anti-LGBTQ employment discrimination. She went as far as to suggest an apocalypse-like scenario if Congress passed such a measure.

“God created us male and female,” she said on the House floor. “In his image, he created us. The Equality Act that we are to vote on this week destroys God’s creation. It also completely annihilates women’s rights and religious freedoms. It can be handled completely differently to stop discrimination without destroying women’s rights, little girls’ rights in sports, and religious freedom, violating everything we hold dear in God’s creation.”

Greene, who serves one of the nation’s most deeply red districts in northwest Georgia, attempted to pass legislation dubbed the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” which would have criminalized gender-affirming care for minors and restricted federal funding and education related to gender-affirming care in 2023. The bill was considered dead in January 2025 after being referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Her push came despite multiple professional medical organizations, including the nation’s largest and most influential — the American Medical Association — stating that withholding gender-affirming care would do more harm than any such care would.

She has called drag performers “child predators” and described the Democratic Party as “the party of killing babies, grooming and transitioning children, and pro-pedophile politics.”

Greene has also publicly attacked Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, the nation’s first and only transgender member of Congress. She has repeatedly misgendered and attacked McBride, saying, “He’s a man. He’s a biological male,” adding, “he’s got plenty of places he can go” when asked about bathrooms and locker rooms McBride should use. Greene has also been vocal about her support for a bathroom-usage bill targeting McBride and transgender Americans as a whole.

She has repeatedly cited false claims that transgender people are more violent than their cisgender counterparts, including falsely stating that the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooter in Texas was transgender.

The former MAGA first lady also called for an end to Pride month celebrations. She criticized the fact that the LGBTQ community gets “an entire” month while veterans get “only one day each year” in an X post, despite November being designated as National Veterans and Military Families Month.

Under Georgia law, Gov. Brian Kemp (R) must hold a special election within 40 days of the seat becoming vacant.

The Washington Blade reached out to both the White House and Greene’s office for comment, but has not heard back.

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Congress

PFLAG honors Maxine Waters

Barney Frank presented Calif. Democrat with award at DC event

Published

6 days ago

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November 20, 2025

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U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for PFLAG National)

PFLAG honored U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) with the “2025 PFLAG National Champion of Justice” award during their annual “Love Takes Justice” event in Washington.

Waters has represented California’s 43rd Congressional District — including much of Los Angeles — since 1991 and has been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights since her swearing-in.

Her track record includes opposing the Defense of Marriage Act, which would have made marriage only between a man and a woman; co-sponsoring the Respect for Marriage Act, ultimately requiring all U.S. states to recognize same-sex marriages performed by other states; and is a long time supporter of the Equality Act, which would codify comprehensive protections for LGBTQ Americans.

In addition to her work on marriage equality, she also created the Minority AIDS Initiative to help address the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on minority communities, particularly communities of color.

The award reception took place Tuesday at the headquarters of the American Federation of Teachers, where Waters was presented with the award by former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the openly gay member of Congress. Frank praised Waters for her unwavering support for the LGBTQ community and her lifelong commitment to advancing equality for all.

“One of the most encouraging developments in the fight for human rights is the failure of those who traffic in any form of bigotry, including bigotry to divide the Black and LGBTQ+ communities,” said Frank, who came out in 1987 while in office. “No one deserves more recognition for strengthening our unity than Maxine Waters.”

During the reception, Waters spoke about her extensive history of LGBTQ advocacy within the halls of Congress, emphasizing that her idea of government centers around uplifting its most vulnerable and threatened communities.

“From the very beginning of my public life I’ve believed that the government must protect those that are vulnerable, including LGBTQ+ people, who have been pushed to the margins, criminalized and told that their lives and their love do not matter,” Waters said. “Discrimination has no place in our laws.”

She continued, adding that the discrimination LGBTQ people have dealt with — and continue to deal with — is unconstitutional and wrong.

“I am proud to stand with LGBTQ+ families against efforts to write discrimination into our constitution, against attempts to deny people jobs, housing, healthcare and basic dignity because of who they are or who they love,” she said.

Waters joins a slew of other LGBTQ advocates who have received this award, beginning with the late-Georgia Congressman John Lewis in 2018. Past honorees include Oakland (Calif.) Mayor Barbara Lee, who was then a member of Congress, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Frank, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who was then a member of Congress, and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

PFLAG CEO Brian Bond commented on the continued fight for LGBTQ rights in the U.S. as anti-transgender rhetoric and policies coming from the Trump-Vance White House grow each week.

“LGBTQ+ people and their families — and all of you here — know too well the reality of the political climate, the attitudes of the public, and the sheer lack of respect that LGBTQ+ people are experiencing in the world today. There’s no end to the hostile barrage of harmful laws, city ordinances, and regulations, especially against our trans loved ones,” Bond said. “This particular moment in history calls us to increase and fortify our work, advocating at every level of government.”

He ended with some hope — reminding the LGBTQ community they have been on the receiving end of discrimination and unjust treatment before, but have risen above and changed the laws — saying we can do it again.

“PFLAG members and supporters are uniquely suited for this moment, because we are fighting for and alongside our LGBTQ+ loved ones, we know that our love is louder … and love and liberty are inseparable,” said Bond.

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Congress

Global Respect Act reintroduced in US House

Measure would sanction foreign officials responsible for anti-LGBTQ human rights abuses

Published

6 days ago

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November 20, 2025

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U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) is a sponsor of the Global Respect Act. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

U.S. Reps. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) on Thursday reintroduced a bill that would sanction foreign officials who carry out anti-LGBTQ human rights abuses.

A press release notes the Global Respect Act would direct “the U.S. government to identify and sanction foreign persons who are responsible for torture, arbitrary detention, physical attacks, murder, and other flagrant abuses against LGBTQI+ individuals.” The measure would also require “annual human rights reporting from the State Department and strengthens coordination with foreign governments, civil society, and the private sector to prevent anti-LGBTQI+ persecution.”

“Freedom and dignity should never depend on your zip code or who holds power in your country,” said McBride.

The Delaware Democrat who is the first openly transgender person elected to Congress notes consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in more than 60 countries, while “far too many (countries) look away from the violence that follows.”

“The Global Respect Act reaffirms a simple truth: no one should be targeted for who they are or whom they love,” said McBride. “This bill strengthens America’s voice on human rights.”

“No person should ever face imprisonment, violence, or discrimination on the basis of who they are,” added Fitzpatrick. “The Global Respect Act imposes real and necessary sanctions on those who carry out these abuses and strengthens America’s resolve to uphold basic human rights worldwide.”

The Global Respect Act has 119 co-sponsors. McBride and Fitzpatrick reintroduced it in the U.S. House of Representatives on the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

“As we mark Transgender Day of Remembrance, we reaffirm that no one, no matter where they live in the world, should be persecuted or subjected to violence simply because of who they are or whom they love,” said Mark Bromley, co-chair of the Council for Global Equality. “The Global Respect Act seeks to hold the world’s worst perpetrators of violence against LGBTQI+ people accountable by leveraging our sanctions regimes to uphold the human rights of all people.”

Outright International, Amnesty International USA, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, ORAM (Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration), and the Human Rights Campaign are among the other groups that have endorsed the bill.

U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in June introduced the Global Equality Act in the U.S. Senate. Gay California Congressman Robert Garcia and U.S. Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) on Monday introduced the International Human Defense Act that would require the State Department to promote LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad.

The promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights was a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris administration’s overall foreign policy.

The global LGBTQ and intersex rights movement since the Trump-Vance administration froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid has lost more than an estimated $50 million in funding.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which funded dozens of advocacy groups around the world, officially shut down on July 1. Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this year said the State Department would administer the remaining 17 percent of USAID contracts that had not been cancelled.

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