By Valerie Richardson – The Washington Times – Monday, March 3, 2025
Senate Democrats sank for now a bill Monday barring male-born athletes from competing in female scholastic sports, defying a rising tide of public opposition to transgender players competing based on gender identity instead of biological sex.
Senate Republicans were unable to muster the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture on Senate Bill 9, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act sponsored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Republican. The final party-line vote was 51-45.
The bill would have banned federal funding to scholastic institutions that allow those whose “sex is male” to participate in programs or activities designated for girls and women, with “sex” being based “solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
Republicans lost the vote but may be winning the public relations battle on a controversy that pollsters describe as an 80/20 issue.
A New York Times/IPSOS poll released in January found a whopping 79% of U.S. adults opposed allowing transgender athletes in female sports, including 67% of Democrats and 64% of independents.
Conservative groups denounced Senate Democrats for refusing to bend on the issue.
“It is disappointing to watch Democrats deny biological reality and ignore the will of the American people just to appease their out-of-touch, radical base,” American Principles Project President Terry Schilling said after the vote. “Women and girls deserve to feel safe in bathrooms, locker rooms, and on the field. Democrats need to get their heads out of the sand and listen to the American people who clearly want women’s sports to be protected.”
Cheering the bill’s widely expected defeat was the American Civil Liberties Union, which called the bill “simply one part of a sweeping effort to push transgender people out of public life altogether.”
“We need more attention on actually ensuring fair and equal opportunity for all girls and women, not inflicting invasive and humiliating checks and bullying on kids to serve adults’ political purposes,” said Mike Zamore, ACLU national director of policy and government affairs.
Only two Democrats broke ranks to join the House Republican majority in passing the companion measure in January, three weeks before President Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order.
Mr. Trump’s order signed Feb. 5 bans schools from allowing students to compete in female sports based on gender identity, but Republicans argued that the legislation is needed to codify the measure.
The White House issued a statement before the vote saying that it “strongly supports” the legislation, saying it would complement both Mr. Trump’s executive order and federal court rulings.
The president’s executive order also vacated the Biden administration’s rule adding “gender identity” to Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in education.
“Men participating in women’s sports not only is demeaning and dangerous to women and girls, but it erodes the integrity of our Nation’s civil rights laws,” said the administration statement.
The Trump Department of Education has already launched investigations into states that have defied the executive action, including California, Maine and Minnesota.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights announced Monday an investigation into the Tumwater School District in Washington state in response to a complaint filed on behalf of a female basketball player who refused to compete against a transgender athlete.
