Texas Will Ban Trans Women Athletes From Female College Sports, Abbott Vows

Texas will ban transwomen athletes from participating in female college sports, conservative and state governor Greg Abbott vowed.

The Lone Star State has banned transwomen athletes in primary and secondary schools since 2021.

"This next session, we will pass a law prohibiting biological men to compete against women in college sports," Abbott said during the Dallas Freedom Conference, a meeting of young conservatives, on Sunday.

Republican lawmakers have already filed two bills – Senate Bill 649 and House Bill 23 – seeking to ban transwomen from female college sports.

"We've fought for the rights of women to be able to succeed in this world only to have that now superseded by this ideology that men are going to be empowered to compete against women," Abbott said, referencing Harvard transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.

The recent moves sparked protests from rights advocates such as Equality Texas.

"This type of legislation would abandon trans athletes and leave them without a way to express themselves in sports," Equality Texas tweeted.

Earlier, members of the LGBTQ+ organization It Gets Better rallied against the lawmakers' discriminatory policies.

"To the lawmakers who support this legislation, leave us alone," transgender youth Elliott from the organization wrote. "Transgender youth are just normal teenagers who just want to play sports on the team that matches who we really are."

"These laws are ridiculous and there are much bigger issues that you should be concerned with instead of attacking the human rights of transgender youth. These laws are not 'protecting girls,' they are hurting girls because transgender girls are girls. Science supports that transgender people are valid, and you should too."

In January last year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) voted in support of transgender participation in college sports.

"The new policy, effective immediately, aligns transgender student-athlete participation for college sports with recent policy changes from the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee and International Olympic Committee."

Transgender student-athletes would be required to document sport-specific testosterone levels beginning four weeks before their sport's championship selections, according to the NCAA.