CV NEWS FEED // The House is scheduled to consider a bill this week that would protect female athletes from having to compete against males in girls’ and women’s sports.
H.R. 28, also known as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” was reintroduced Jan. 3 by Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube.
The bill aims to revoke federal funding from schools or athletic programs that allow males to participate in women’s athletic programs.
According to the bill, “Sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
Steube previously introduced the bill in 2023 as H.R. 734, which passed in the House but failed to reach a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Steube said in a statement this week: “Americans have loudly spoken that they do not want men stealing sports records from women, entering their daughters’ locker rooms, replacing female athletes on teams, and taking their daughters’ scholarship opportunities.”
“My legislation,” he continued, “stands for truth, safety, and reality: men have no place in women’s sports. Republicans have promised to protect women’s sports, and under President Trump’s leadership, we will fulfill this promise.”
The bill has 64 cosponsors, all Republicans.
The bill’s reintroduction comes after Trump swept all seven swing states and defeated the Democratic campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
The issue presented in the bill may have been a contributing factor to Harris’ defeat, according to a poll that found that swing voters believed Harris was too focused on transgender issues.
Last week, a federal judge nullified a years-long effort by the outgoing Biden administration to mandate the inclusion of males in female sports via a rewrite of Title IX anti-discrimination law. The Democratic administration’s rewrite inserted language covering “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” under sex-based protections.
As CatholicVote reported last week, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Kentucky “threw out the outgoing Biden administration’s pro-LGBTQ rewrite of Title IX…. The ruling applies to the entire country.”
The ruling stated that the administration’s “Final Rule and its corresponding regulations exceed the Department’s authority under Title IX.”
According to the Washington Stand, “Former President Bill Clinton tried to warn the Kamala Harris campaign that its extreme position on the transgender issue would lead to its defeat, but the campaign rebuffed him.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL, reintroduced a companion bill into the Senate Jan. 7. “President Trump ran on the issue of saving women’s sports and won in a landslide,” Tuberville said in a statement. “70% of Americans agree–men don’t belong in women’s sports or locker rooms.”
At a campaign event in December 2024, Trump said, “We will keep men out of women’s sports.”
“Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders – male and female,” he vowed.