Idaho Gov. Signs Law Barring Biological Males, 'Transgenders,' From Female Sports - CNSNews.com
(Getty Images)
(CNSNews.com) -- Idaho's Gov. Brad Little (R) signed into law on Monday legislation that prohibits biological males from competing in female sports, thus barring "transgender women" from real women's sports.
The governor also signed into law another bill that requires birth certificates to record the biological sex of the person at birth, based upon their reproductive anatomy and chromosomes. Birth certificates cannot be changed based on gender theory or transgender identity.
(Heritage Foundation)
The governor did not comment on the bills after he signed them into law. However, State Sen. Mary Souza (R-Coeur d'Alene), who sponsored the sports bill, said in mid-March, “We are not trying to do anything except save women’s sports for girls and women."
The "Fairness in Women's Sports Act" (HB 500) states that there are "inherent differences between men and women," and these differences "range from chromosonal and hormonal differences to physiological differences." It then cites numerous medical articles documenting the biological differences between men and women and how men, in general, have a quantifiable advantage over women in athletics.
Transgender "woman" wrestler defeats real woman wrestler. (Getty Images)
One article, published in the Washington Post (4/29/19) and written by All-American track athlete Doriana Coleman and tennis champion Martina Navratilova, states, "The evidence is unequivocal that starting in puberty, in every sport except sailing, shooting, and riding, there will always be significant numbers of boys and men who would beat the best girls and women in head-to-head competition. Claims to the contrary are simply a denial of science."
The Act then explains how any sports program in or affiliated with the Idaho public schools and universities must have sports teams based on biological sex: "Males, men or boys; females, women, or girls; and coed or mixed."
"Athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex," reads the new law.
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The pro-LGBT Human Rights Campaign (HRC) said, "Idaho is now a national innovator in discrimination, having passed and signed into law first-of-its-kind anti-transgender legislation. It also becomes the first state in the country this year to enact legislation that specifically singles out the transgender community for discriminatory treatment."
"H.B. 500 forbids transgender girls from being able to play on sports teams with other girls, and it will subject all girls to the risk of invasive, expensive, and inappropriate testing," said the HRC.
"It is so clearly unconstitutional that Idaho’s current Attorney General and five previous Attorneys General of Idaho all urged the legislature and Governor to prevent the bill from becoming law," said the organization. "Yet, legislators and the governor did not listen and signed taxpayers up to bear the cost of defending this discriminatory legislation in court."
Transgender "woman" weightlifter Laurel Hubbard. (Getty Images)
The birth certificate bill (HB 509) basically says that birth certificates will be issued based on a person's biological, anatomical, chromosonal sex, and birth certificates cannot be changed to represent someone's preferred gender identity, such as a transgender "woman" -- a biological male -- claiming to be female.
The new law states, "Any certificate of birth issued under the provisions of this chapter shall include the following quantitative statistics and material facts specific to that birth: time of birth, date of birth, sex, birth weight, birth length, and place of birth."
Gabby Douglas, a biological woman and gold medal gymnast. (Getty Images)
It further states, "For purposes of this chapter, 'sex' means the immutable biological and physiological characteristics, specifically the chromosomes and internal and external reproductive anatomy, genetically determined at conception and generally recognizable at birth, that define an individual as male or female."
Commenting on this legislation, the HRC said, "HB 509 flouts a recent decision by a federal court and, again contrary to the advice of the Idaho Attorney General, guarantees that Idaho taxpayers will be paying to defend yet another discriminatory law -- this time one that impedes transgender people from obtaining a birth certificate updated with the correct gender marker."
Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow with the Family Research Council (FRC), said of the new Idaho laws, "The two new laws were routinely referred to in the media as 'anti-transgender' bills, but might better be thought of as 'truth about biological sex' bills, since they merely give legal priority to the objective reality of biological sex, rather than adopting the novel ideological construct that a person's subjective and self-selected 'gender identity' is more important."
"Credit should be given to both the legislature and to Gov. Little for not being intimidated by threats of lawsuits or of corporate boycotts from titans like Nike, and instead standing up for the common sense that 'sex' means innate biological sex," said Sprigg.