By: Paul Barnes
Introduction
In many places in the United States, and even the entire world, there is great debate over what place transgender people have in society. Some believe being transgender should not be allowed, others feel people should be able to make that choice for themselves. Regardless, many people around the world are transgender and political parties often have conflicting opinions on what should be done with them. On one side, there are those who believe they should be free to do as they please and be considered the sex that they become. On the other hand, some feel they should be considered as their sex they had at birth, regardless of how they feel or what they now look like. Others still feel that one can consider themselves the opposite sex while still being their original sex, and some do not consider themselves male or female (nonbinary).
The bill that will be covered in this blog post, SB0218 is a bill from the Michigan State Legislature, sponsored exclusively by Republican Lawmakers, hence, it is NOT bipartisan legislation. In essence, the bill seeks to dictate how transgender students can participate in school sports and what teams they can join.
What Exactly Does This Bill Do?
The bill amends 1976 PA 451 by adding a new section. At the end of the section, it explains a keyword that is important, hence why it will be covered first. The keyword in question is “Biological Sex” which as defined in this bill means, “the physical condition of being male or female as determined by an individual’s chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth”. Essentially, when the bill refers to biological sex, it simply means what sex the person was assigned at birth and not the sex (or lack there of) they refer to themselves as now.
This bill requires the board of a school district, intermediate school district, or the board of a public academy ensure that all high schools that they operate create and maintain the following policies:
- If a interscholastic athletic activity is offered by the school as a girl’s, women’s, or female team, then all those who compete for a place on the team or are selected for the team must be female based on their biological sex (sex assigned at birth).
- If a interscholastic athletic activity is offered by the school as a boy’s, men’s, or male team, then all those who compete for a place on the team or are selected for the team must be male based on their biological sex (sex assigned at birth).
Adding biological sex here is quite important as it completely changes the meaning of the bill. In short, the bill is an attempt to require those who are transgender to compete with those who are of their sex assigned at birth. This raises some issues.
Why Propose This Bill?
While there could be many reasons to make a bill like this, one of the most likely reasons, lies in cases similar to that of Selina Soule, a woman from Connecticut who lost in the competition to transgender female students who identified as female, but were assigned male at birth. While it is a matter of debate (one that is often fairly political) whether her complaints are legitimate or not, many see them as such. Hence, this bill is likely one method from attempting to stop this problem from happening in Michigan by requiring students to compete on the team that corresponds with their sex assigned at birth.
However, this presents one issue. An individual born and assigned female at birth, for instance, could have fully undergone the process to become a man, in which case, under this law, they would be required to compete with women, who would naturally be at a disadvantage. While the bill seems like it was intended to prevent instances like the above case from Connecticut from happening, all it will do is actually make those cases MORE likely to happen. For example, women who have become male will be placed in competition with other women, which one would expect to give the transgender individual an advantage and the non-transgender women a disadvantage. One the other hand, a male who has become a women would have to compete with other men, and in this case, the Transgender Woman would be at the disadvantage. Hence, the intended effect of the law to make school sports an equal playing field for both male and females could end up having the opposite effect in some cases.
Essentially, if the goal of the bill is truly to make an even playing field for men and women in sports, then this bill utterly fails at that as it actually makes the playing field more unfair then it was before.
The other option for the bill is it is trying to restrict the right of transgender students in some way, but even that fails, as women who have become male will actually see an advantage from this bill rather than a disadvantage (transgender females will however see a disadvantage).
Who Sponsored the Bill?
As stated earlier the bill is sponsored by only Republicans, 13 of them in fact. They are as follows; Tom Barrett, John Bizon, Jon Bumstead, Kevin Daley, Kim LaSata, Michael MacDonald, Aric Nesbitt, Rick Outman, Jim Runestad, Lana Theis, Curt VanderWall, Roger Victory, Dale Zorn. These are the men and women who sponsored the bill.
Conclusion/Impact
The main impact of the bill would be on schools and transgender students, both of whom would be required to make changes. School districts would have to change their teams/competitions to suit this new legislation and transgender students would lose their place on the team and may very well find difficulty (or ease depending on how teams are decided) getting onto the team of their “biological sex”. While the bill would on paper make it so that men would not be competing with women and vice versa, a transgender student would have to compete as their sex assigned at birth, which could actual encourage the situations the bill is trying to prevent.
Currently, the bill is still in Committee, so if you have any strong feelings one way or another please reach out to your legislator and tell them how you feel.