Editor’s note: This article contains transphobic rhetoric.
A Georgia Senate committee formed in early August has kicked off the push to ban trans women from competing in women’s sports by hearing testimony from five former college swimmers who are suing the NCAA and Georgia Tech over a transgender woman’s participation in a championship competition.
The panel of athletes told the Georgia Senate Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports on August 27 that they felt cheated when trans woman swimmer Lia Thomas competed against them at the 2022 NCAA championships held at Georgia Tech and won. One of the athletes, former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, equated Thomas’ participation with “sexual harassment.”
“Let me be clear, I label this as sexual harassment because me and the four witnesses you heard from today and the hundreds of other 18- to 22-year-old college girls were not asked for our consent,” Gaines testified. “And we did not give our consent to being exploited and exposed to a 6′4″ fully naked man. Because [Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera] did nothing, that man walked into our women’s locker room … and saw me undress down to full nudity.”
In 2022, the NCAA Board of Governors set a policy that transgender athletes participating should follow the guidelines set by the international governing bodies of each sport, according to Axios. The same year, General Assembly Republicans passed a law allowing the Georgia High School Association to regulate transgender women and girl’s participation in sports. The association thusly banned participation in sports events it sponsors.
While Thomas was invited to attend the committee meeting, along with Georgia Tech officials – who the panelists argued should be held responsible, along with the NCAA, for allowing Thomas to utilize the women’s locker room and participate in the competition – Major Chief Deputy Whip Greg Dolezal, who chairs the committee, said they did not accept.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones told the committee that leaving the issue up to the Georgia High School Association was “the wrong move for us to do” and didn’t go far enough, saying he wanted lawmakers to pass additional laws in 2025.
While Jones says Republicans are “not here to marginalize any one group,” LGBTQ activists believe the attack on trans women and girls in sports is an effort to garner political power.
“It’s really hard as a sexual abuse survivor and a domestic violence survivor to hear transgender human beings being equated to anything other than trying to live their authentic lives,” Noël Heatherland, the statewide organizing manager at Georgia Equality, told the AJC. “We are all God’s children. We are all human beings and there is nothing perverse about people who are simply existing as their authentic selves.”
Cait Smith, the director of LGBTQ policy at the Center for American Progress, told the AJC that the support for banning trans athletes typically relies on anecdotal evidence instead of statistical realities.
“The trans community is actually underrepresented in sports,” she said. “While the Olympics has allowed trans women to compete since 2004, to trans women have medaled. … Many here today are focused on one student who won one final at one championship two years ago. If trans women have such a clear advantage in sports, why do we not see them winning many more championships and filling team rosters at the college level?