Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law today banning transgender women from school sports for girls and women. He did so after months of complex and controversial negotiations.
The Republican governor called the ban a way to protect the integrity of girls’ and women’s sports. By law, an athlete who was not born a woman may not participate in women’s sports sponsored by the schools. The ban does not apply to primary school children.
“In Florida, girls will play girls’ sports, and boys will play boys’ sports,” DeSantis said at the signing of the bill. Several government organizations — Florida High School Athletic Association and the National Collegiate Athletic Association — already had rules around the participation of transgender athletes.
Opponents of the law, including equal opportunities activists and many trans people, denounce that DeSantis wants to score political points by further alienating trans people.
Proponents of the ban do not mention concrete problems within the leagues in Florida. They do refer to Connecticut, where trans girls won several athletic competitions. Athletes filed a complaint against the state’s inclusive policy.
Florida is the most populous state to ban transgender athletes. Last year, Idaho became the first state to take such a measure; Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi followed suit this year. However, that didn’t go smoothly; human rights group American Civil Liberties Union announced it would challenge the law in Tennessee; Idaho’s is currently blocked due to federal lawsuits.
For a long time, Florida seemed unable to pass the law. He was eventually tied to a law on charter schools. These are schools that are funded by the government but operate independently of the state school system. Human rights activists call this loophole an illegal way to discriminate against transgender people.
The other legislation on charter schools is also controversial. For example, public colleges and universities are now allowed to enter into contracts with the schools, a rule that Republicans have been trying to approve for years. The law makes it easier to open charter schools, which opponents say privatize public education, take money and students from district schools and are not accountable.
