Blog

Your Education Road Map

Politics K-12®

Politics K-12 kept watch on education policy and politics in the nation’s capital and in the states. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: Federal, States.

States

Two More States Pass Restrictions on Transgender Students. Will Others Follow?

By Evie Blad — March 26, 2021 4 min read
Advocates for transgender people march from the South Dakota governor's mansion to the Capitol in Pierre, S.D., on March 11, 2021, to protest a proposed ban on transgender girls and women from female sports leagues.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Momentum continues in state legislatures around the country considering dozens of bills that would restrict the rights of transgender students, making the issue one of the dominant trends in spring sessions.

States are weighing measures that would do everything from restricting the names and pronouns teachers use to refer to transgender students to banning health care targeted at the needs of transgender children.

Most commonly, 28 states have considered or passed bills that would prohibit transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams, according to a tracker maintained by the ACLU.

The latest actions:

  • Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, on Thursday became the second state leader to sign a bill into law with restrictions in the area of athletics, following Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who signed a similar measure earlier this month. They join Idaho, which passed the first state-level restrictions on transgender athletes last year, a measure that was later blocked by a federal court.
  • Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, has signaled plans to sign a bill passed by his state’s legislature that would require students to prove their sex at birth to play interscholastic sports.
  • Several other states, including North Carolina and Alabama, are actively considering bills.

The sponsors of those measures say transgender girls may have an unfair competitive advantage.

Transgender rights groups and medical organizations, like state chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics, have argued that’s not the case. Enactment of such measures could put states at odds with federal civil rights laws, leading to costly legal battles and logistical concerns for schools, they’ve argued.

Transgender rights organizations hope some of those concerns will give governors pause as bills make their way to their desks.

That was the case for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, who used a “style-and-form” veto to return a “Fairness in Women’s Sports” bill to the state legislature for further consideration. The measure’s “vague and overly broad language could have significant unintended consequences,” Noem said, drawing criticism from national conservatives.

Among her concerns: requirements to test students for steroids, liability concerns for individual schools, and ramifications for college teams participating in the NCAA.

“This backtrack, by even an extreme governor with national political aspirations, exposes the economic, legal, and reputational threats these bills pose to states considering anti-transgender legislation,” said a statement from the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ rights organization.

Other states have forged ahead.

“I signed the law as a fan of women’s sports from basketball to soccer and including many others in which women compete successfully,” Arkansas Gov. Hutchinson said in a statement. “This law simply says that female athletes should not have to compete in a sport against a student of the male sex when the sport is designed for women’s competition.”

His actions drew swift rebuke from advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Campaign, which planned to run an ad in opposition to the measure during the University of Arkansas March 27 Sweet 16 basketball game. The group says the bills are “in search of a problem that does not exist.”

The restrictive bills represent a growing legislative trend

Many of the state bills have similar or identical language, and they’ve won support from national groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative organization that has represented students and schools in lawsuits against transgender-inclusive policies.

Such policies infringe on the privacy rights of cisgender girls, they have said.

Children’s health organizations have said acknowledging and respecting children’s gender identity can be important for their health and development.

And LGBTQ advocacy groups say states like California, which already have inclusive sports policies, haven’t seen issues with unfair competitive advantage for transgender girls.

An analysis by the Associated Press found most state lawmakers considering new restrictions for transgender students couldn’t “cite a single instance in their own state or region where such participation has caused problems.”

But, around the country, a handful of female athletes have complained. They include high school track athletes who are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit over Connecticut’s inclusive policy.

While the rights of transgender people have emerged as a new political front, similar to past battles over same-sex marriage and other social issues, new state laws may not be the final word.

Education law experts point to a growing body of court decisions that suggest existing federal civil rights laws may protect the rights of transgender students.

In an inauguration day executive order, President Joe Biden cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga., which held that a prohibition of sex discrimination in Title VII, the federal employment law, prohibits unequal treatment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Biden directed federal agencies to apply a similar interpretation to other federal laws prohibiting sex discrimination, including Title IX, which covers education and school athletics.

In February, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Equality Act, a bill that would explicitly codify protections related to sexual orientation and gender identity into federal civil rights laws.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Politics K-12 blog.

Events

School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
Teaching Students to Use Artificial Intelligence Ethically
Ready to embrace AI in your classroom? Join our master class to learn how to use AI as a tool for learning, not a replacement.
Content provided by Solution Tree
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Teaching Webinar
Empowering Students Using Computational Thinking Skills
Empower your students with computational thinking. Learn how to integrate these skills into your teaching and boost student engagement.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

States A State Changed Anti-Bias Guidelines for Teachers After a Lawsuit. Will Others?
The lawsuit filed by a conservative law firm took issue with state guidelines on examining biases and diversifying curriculum.
5 min read
Students arrive for classes at Taylor Allderdice High School in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh on Jan. 23, 2024.
Students arrive for classes at Taylor Allderdice High School in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh on Jan. 23, 2024. As part of a recent court settlement, Pennsylvania will no longer require school districts to follow its set of guidelines that sought to confront racial and cultural biases in education.
Gene J. Puskar/AP
States Oklahoma Superintendent Prays for Trump in Video He's Requiring for Students
Two of the state's largest districts say they won't show the video, in which Superintendent Ryan Walters prays for the president-elect.
2 min read
Ryan Walters, Republican state superintendent candidate, speaks, June 28, 2022, in Oklahoma City.
Ryan Walters, Republican state superintendent candidate, speaks, June 28, 2022, in Oklahoma City.
Sue Ogrocki/AP
States In Deep-Red Florida, Voters Reject Partisan School Board Races
Florida voters rejected a constitutional amendment to make school board races partisan.
2 min read
Image of a board room.
Collage by Laura Baker/Education Week (Images: DigitalVision Vectors; E+; iStock/Getty)
States Democrat Defeats a State Schools Chief Candidate Who Called for Public Executions
A candidate's past calls for Democrats' executions thrust one of this year's four state superintendent races into the national spotlight.
3 min read
N.C. State Superintendent democratic candidate Mo Green speaks during a debate with fellow candidate Michele Morrow at the Heart Institute at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., on Sept. 24, 2024.
Mo Green, the Democratic candidate for schools chief in North Carolina, speaks during a debate with GOP candidate Michele Morrow at the Heart Institute at East Carolina University in Greenville on Sept. 24. Green defeated Morrow.
Scott Davis/The Daily Reflector via AP