Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked two similar proposals that would have required public school student-athletes — both K-12 and collegiate — to participate on sports teams that align with their birth gender, not with how they identify. The panel also rejected a measure that would have required public schools to out transgender students to their parents.
After sometimes testy exchanges, the Senate Education and Health Subcommittee by a voice vote simultaneously killed Senate Bill 723, sponsored by Sen. Tammy Brankley Mulchi, R-Mecklenburg County, and SB 68, which Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, reintroduced after it failed last year.
Between both proposals, Mulchi’s bill was broader as it applied to transgender students of all ages, from K-12 to higher education, while Peake’s legislation was more narrowly focused, including only high school students in grades nine to 12. Peake’s measure also would have permitted students who had transitioned from male to female before puberty to play on girls’ teams.
Mulchi argued that her bill was necessary because athletes who were born male had an unfair advantage over female athletes because of a higher bone density and testosterone levels, “which immensely impacts their ability to be stronger and perform better, and participate at a higher level.”
Mulchi added that she was concerned with how such an advantage would impact her 6-year-old granddaughter. “If she wants to play an all-girl sport, I want her to play against girls who were born girls and not have to play against someone who is much stronger than her and who can hurt her and take away her chances of a scholarship,” Mulchi said.
Both proposals had the support of Attorney General Jason Miyares.
“This bill is all about protecting and empowering girls and women, period. It’s about fundamental fairness,” said Holly Klein, a counsel with the Virginia Attorney General’s Office. “This legislation is crucial in protecting the integrity of women’s sports and to safeguard opportunities for female athletes to excel.”
Klein cited a majority opinion written by the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in which she said that the physical differences between men and women are enduring and that the two sexes are not fungible.
“It is important to recognize these physical differences in order to promote equality,” Klein said. “We have fought so hard to get where we are today, to get to the level of women’s rights, and we don’t want to go backwards. One opportunity lost is enough.”
Teresa Pregnall, the state director for Concerned Women for America of Virginia, told the committee that since 2020, 23 states have enacted laws to “protect female athletes from unfair competition in sports designated” for women and girls. “Females should not suffer the loss of opportunity because a biological male who claims transgender status as a woman receives her spot,” she said.
But Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia, decried the what she called “transphobic language” during the hearing. “Transgirls are girls, transwomen are women, they have always existed and will continue to exist. This bill claims to protect women’s sports, but it does not address any real issues that female athletes are facing, especially rampant sexual assault, pay equity and underfunding,” Rahaman said.
And Jenna, a Henrico County resident who didn’t provide a last name but is part of the county’s LGBTQ community, said that legislation like the one proposed by Mulchi and Peake would signal to transgender youth that they don’t belong.
“Everybody thinks they know how they’d react if their kid, cousin, or parent came out as trans. They all think they know what’s best for them, and how that person should live their life,” Jenna said. “Do you know what parents of trans kids really get afraid of? They are afraid of the actual effects, they know their child will be a target of loud, misinformed voices ostracizing them when their child is just trying to live a normal life connected to other people, not rejected by them. How can anybody belong when there are bills proposed and passed about them specifically?”
Peake said that his proposal encapsulated “a highly emotional and charged issue” that has remained in the national focus.
“In no way do I mean to be disrespectful to anyone in bringing this up, but you have to remember there are two sides,” Peake said. “There is the transgender child that wants to play sports, but you also have the other people that want to play sports. [This bill is] not trying to destroy transgender rights, but there are two sides to this, and each side has rights as well.”
Mulchi said that her proposal would give her granddaughter the choice of only competing with people “that are built like her with the same strength as her. It gives her a choice, just like everyone else wants a choice.”
But Sen. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax County, a member of the committee, countered that children of all ages and sexes have different builds and strengths. “No two children are alike on a team, ever, and I look at my own six kids,” she said.
Earlier in the meeting, the committee shot down a measure reintroduced by Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland County, that would have ensured parental notification by public schools in cases where a student identifies as a gender other than his or her biological sex.
SB 37, named Sage’s Law after a teenager from Appomattox County whose paternal grandmother and adopted parent said the teen was bullied and assaulted at school after being asked to be called by a boy’s name, was previously blocked by Senate Democrats last year.
Michele Blair told the committee on Thursday that “no child should ever go through the horrific ordeal Sage did.”
Blair said that Sage was a 14-year-old ninth-grader at Appomattox High School in August 2021 who “decided to identify as a boy, using a boy’s name and pronouns.” One counselor told Sage to use the boys’ bathroom, and another recommended a transgender website Sage needed to visit, Blair said.
“No one told me. Sage was horribly bullied to the point of severe harassment with violent threats of rape. Now why in the world would any professional dealing with my child keep something like this a secret? Had I been told what was going on at school, I would have had the chance to step in. By keeping that secret from me, the Appomattox school district robbed me of the opportunity to protect Sage.”
The teen later ran away from home and became a victim of sex traffickers, who brought the teen to Maryland, where Sage was later rescued by the FBI. Blair said it took several months to bring her child home. “By not informing parents, and in too many instances lying to parents, these children are lost in the system and become victims of sex trafficking,” Blair said. “Sage and many other children had a huge piece of themselves stolen by advocates of this social contagion, it’s destroying young, impressionable lives in the worst way. That’s why we need Sage’s Law, it’s basic common sense.”
Fairfax County resident Laura Hanford, who said she was “a friend of Sage and Michele,” said it was too late to “fix what happened with Sage, but you can prevent it from happening to another and shut this door to predators for other kids.”
And Josh Hetzler, an attorney with the Family Foundation of Virginia, who helped Blair to retrieve Sage, said that the problem is real, not just hypothetical. “This law is needed to make sure this isn’t happening to other children in Virginia,” he said.
But Rahaman, the executive director of Equality Virginia, said that McGuire’s proposal would increase the risk of trafficking and exploitation, because unsupportive parents often kick out children if their gender identity is disclosed to them.
“A lack of enforced parental notification is not what makes transgender children vulnerable to sex trafficking, but homelessness, limited financial options to meet basic needs and discrimination and isolation are,” Rahaman said.
And forcing school employees, including counselors, to out students who have questions about their gender identity is not only dangerous for trans students, but “seriously violates student privacy,” said Breanna Diaz with the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia. “Students do have a constitutional right to privacy with respect to information about their sexual orientation and gender identity, and it is unlawful for school officials to disclose or compel them to disclose.”
Speaking to his bill, McGuire said that parents deserve to know what’s going on in any part of their children’s lives.
“This is not about adults, it’s about minors that are going through puberty and everything else. All this bill does is simply say that if your child indicates that they are a different sex, you have to let the parent know,” McGuire said. “No politician, no program, no government entity will ever love a child like a parent, and parents should be enforced. It’s not about the LGBTQ movement, it’s about informing parents.”
Pekarsky, the senator from Fairfax County, said that while Sage’s story was “indeed a tragedy,” McGuire’s proposal wasn’t the solution.
“I am a mother, I take that responsibility very seriously. I love my children, I want to know what’s going on in their lives, and I hope that if they have struggles or issues, they will always come to me,” Pekarsky said. “But I think if we start down this path where we are breaking these bonds with teachers, where do we stop? Schools are not there to be policing their students.”
The committee defeated Sage’s Law by voice vote.