Women and girls in Louisiana no longer face competing against biological males in sports’ events — the eighteenth US state to bring in such a ban.
The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which comes into effect on 1 August, protects female athletes by requiring all competitors to be of the same biological sex.
Other states to sign similar bills into law include Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, Utah, Mississippi, Montana and Tennessee.
Biological sex
Louisiana schools will now have to “designate intercollegiate and interscholastic athletic teams according to the biological sex of the team members”.
The legislation defines biological sex as meaning that which appears “on the student’s official birth certificate which is entered at or near the time of the student’s birth”.
Legal protections have been included to prevent students who identify as the opposite sex from bypassing the ban by obtaining a new birth certificate with their preferred ‘gender identity’ on it.
A May 2022 survey by US think tank Pew Research Centre revealed that 58 per cent of respondents favour legislation requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams that match their biological sex.
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