FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — Preventing high school girls who’ve transitioned to that gender from playing sports is one step closer to becoming Kentucky state law.
By a 9-3 margin, SB 83 passed through the committee following more than an hour of testimony on Thursday in Frankfort. It will now move to the Senate floor for a full vote.
“Male athletes still have advantages even after testosterone suppression,” said State Senator Robby Mills who sponsored the bill. “The evidence shows that hormone therapy in males after puberty does not substantially eliminate the male athletic advantage,” Mr. Mills continued to explain before offering statistics and research to support his statements.
Opponents of the bill, like Jefferson County school board member James Craig feels it unfairly puts a transgendered student in a terrible position.
“To ask a transgendered student who’s 15, or 16 or 17-years-old to participate in an athletic activity with students who do not identify as they do is an incredibly traumatizing event,” he stated during open testimony.
Fischer Wells agrees. Wells is a transgendered student-athlete who helped form the girls’ field hockey team at her school. Admittedly, the team did win very many games, but that isn’t the point.
“I really don’t want this bill to pass because that means I can’t play, and it will be extremely detrimental to my health as well,” she said before committee members on Thursday.
David Walls runs the Family Foundation based in Lexington and he supports the bill. Mr. Walls argued that allowing those who now identify as female to play with biological girls would reverse the 50 years of progress women and girls have made on the field of play.
