New rules for student athletics are being deliberated in Iowa, where House File 2309 was submitted to require public and private schools K-12 to ban transgender athletes from competing in a sport outside of the gender the individual was assigned at birth.
Already, the House Education Committee voted 14 to 7 in favor of the bill.
In 2021, bills were introduced in 36 states in the US to require that students only join sports teams, and compete in sports competitions based on their gender assigned at birth. “These efforts assume that transgender girls—often framed as cisgender boys claiming to be girls—hold biological advantages in girls’ sports, effectively undermining fairness in sports,” noted the American Psychological Association (APA), which opposes these bills.
Citing the ACLU, the APA added that “transgender children vary in athletic ability, just as other youth do. There is no evidence to support claims that allowing transgender student athletes to play on the team that fits their gender identity would affect the fairness of the sport or competition.”
