ATLANTA — It could soon be illegal for transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports at all levels from kindergarten to public colleges.
Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns introduced his bill on Tuesday afternoon. Some Democrats are not only condemning the bill but are saying girls’ sports are inherently unfair in Georgia anyway.
Burns’ bill comes even though there are no reported incidents of transgender girls trying to compete in sports anywhere in Georgia.
The bill’s author, Fayetteville Republican Josh Bonner insisted that’s not the point.
“How many incidents? What is our threshold? Do we want any young girl in the state of Georgia to be harmed because they were competing against a biological male?” Bonner said.
The bill also bans transgender girls from girls' locker rooms.
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“It also protects the dignity and integrity of women’s space by requiring separate locker rooms, bathrooms and changing facilities for male and female athletes,” Burns told Channel 2’s Richard Elliot.
Transgender sports have become a hot campaign issue for Republicans over the past few years. Monday, some Georgia Democrats pushed back.
“To be clear, this is a bully tactic aimed at a minority community meanwhile ignoring the reality that girls are cheated out of fairness each and every day,” Democratic state Sen. Kim Jackson told Elliot.
Jackson dropped her own bill that would force Georgia to make boys' and girls' sports equal from practice and game times to coaching salaries and equipment.
Atlanta Democrat Shea Roberts argued that if Republicans care about fairness in sports, they should also support Jackson’s bill.
“If Georgia Republicans truly wanted to protect girls’ sports, they could stop their harping on the non-existent threat by trans athletes and embrace this legislation that empowers our girls,” Roberts said.
There’s also a competing transgender sports bill moving through the Georgia Senate.
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