The Massachusetts House of Representatives last week passed a bill that contained language which “would ban public schools from allowing athletes to play on a team of the opposite sex, but only after the state is able to study the policy’s impact,” according to the Boston Globe.
Reports the Globe:
The Democrat-controlled House passed the provision without a recorded vote, tacking it onto a wider $1.3 billion spending bill that the chamber later passed Wednesday afternoon.
The bill doesn’t directly reference transgender athletes, whose participation in youth and high school sports has been at the center of heated national debate. Democrats’ changes to the language could also effectively block it from taking effect, should the state not do a required analysis.
The provision, nonetheless, drew swift condemnation from gay and transgender advocates, who feared it gives credibility to arguments that transgender student athletes have an unfair advantage in sports.
State Representative John Gaskey, a Carver Republican, initially filed an amendment that would ban public schools from allowing “a male student athlete to participate on a girls’ sports team” or a “female athlete to participate on a boys sports team.”
State Representative Ken Gordon, a Bedford Democrat, then offered a so-called further amendment, which added additional language stating that the provision wouldn’t take effect until a series of steps are taken. These steps include tasking the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with having “analyzed the policy,” including reviewing “any safeguards that may alleviate safety concerns.” Under the bill, state officials would also issue a report, and lawmakers would have to pass other legislation to “carry out any recommendations” before the ban would take effect.
Gordon framed the new language as giving state policymakers time to “better understand these issues.”
“The topic of the amendment is complex, involving issues of federal and state law,” Gordon said from the House floor. “It is a matter of concern to residents of the Commonwealth who have expressed concern from both sides of the issue, and the matter deserves a public hearing before” a legislative committee.
Read the complete Boston Globe story here.
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