The Wisconsin bills SB 322 and SB 323 claim to produce equality in sports by requiring schools to only allow 3 categories of sports teams, one for “biological” males/boys/men, one for “biological” females/girls/women, and a coed team for “both” sexes. Under these bills, biological sex for sports will be determined by one’s birth certificate. Both of these bills go as far as explicitly prohibiting “biological” males from participating on the girls or women’s sports teams. This is a direct attempt of discrimination against trans women.SB 322 and SB 323 require one’s sex as stated on a birth certificate to classify “gender” for sports, but many intersex individuals don’t find out about their intersexuality until puberty, some never find out. Intersexuality is a term used to describe people who don’t fit into the binary of male or female. Sex is dependent on a number of biological characteristics including genitalia, hormones, internal anatomy, and chromosomes. Unless a newborn has a medical need for more thorough testing, most sex determination is based on what genitalia the doctors can see once the baby is born. Some claim that intersex is such a rare occasion that it’s irrelevant, but someone being intersex is as common as someone having red hair. This makes birth certificates not a valid measure of sex. Furthermore, some states now allow parents to choose to put “X” on their child birth certificate to indicate a gender neutral baby. If one of these kids ended up at these schools, how would schools determine which sports teams these kids would be allowed in?
While these bills will lead to systemic discrimination against the trans community in sports, they also validates transphobia by giving anyone who claims to have been harmed if schools don’t comply the right to bring a cause of action against the school. They gives legal protection against any “retaliation” anyone who reports the school’s violation may receive and legal protection from any organization that tries to take adverse action against this discrimination.
Write to your representatives today and tell them not to support SB 322 and SB323.