Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to restrict transgender youth from participating in women’s sports, with two Democrats joining them.
The legislation amends Title IX, the law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs if they receive federal money. The bill would amend the term “sex” to “be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
But only two conservative Democrats, Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, joined Republicans to pass the bill. Don Davis, a swing district Democrat from North Carolina, voted “present.” This came after months of internal debate, with some Democrats fearing that Republican attacks against them worked in the 2024 election.
The House rules package, which dictates the way the House of Representatives conducts itself, listed the legislation as its top priority.
Republicans repeatedly attacked Democrats throughout the 2024 election for allowing transgender girls to compete in women’s sports.
Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York told The Independent she was pleased that Democrats voted against the bill.
“We can't be ninnies about this,” she said. “These are just the early days. Trump hasn't even been sworn in yet, and if a little bitty sports bill was gonna make Dems defect, we're not in good shape.”
The legislation will likely be taken up soon in the Senate, where Sen Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has a companion bill.
President-elect Donald Trump for his part has said he will roll back Biden administration rules that allowed transgender students from using bathrooms or playing sports that align with their gender identities.
The night ahead of the vote, Democrats seemed to be unsure about voting for it. Susie Lee of Nevada told The Independent that she was leaning toward voting against it and had voted against it in the past. Angie Craig of Minnesota said she had not even met with her legislative staff.
Lee ultimately voted against it and explained her decision in a statement.
“As a former high school and college swimmer, I do not support transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports when fairness or safety is compromised,” she said. “I opposed this extreme bill because it is government overreach at its finest, it exposes girls and women to genital exams, and it leads to attacks based solely on personal appearance. Genital exams make female athletes a ripe target for sexual predators – already a very real threat.”
Progressives for their part adopted a new line of attack against Republicans for proposing the legislation.
“This bill would empower child predators to inspect genitalia of young women,” Maxwell Frost of Florida told The Independent. “And so, to protect children, we got to make sure to vote against it.”
Sara Jacobs of California, who has a transgender brother, said she had been having numerous conversations about the bill.
“I think everyone understands that this is not actually about trans people,” she told The Independent. “It's about checking women's genitals before they allow them to play sports.”
Republicans have repeatedly attacked Democrats for supporting transgender people in recent years. In the 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump ran an ad attacking Kamala Harris as “for they/them,” while “President Trump is for you.”
In the days after the election, some Democrats began to express concern that they had fallen out of touch with how the general voting public felt about
In the days after the election, Tom Suozzi, a Democrat from Long Island who had previously criticized Democrats’ supporting “biological boys playing in girls’ sports.” But he told The Independent the night before that he planned to vote against the bill.
Democratic congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts also faced criticism when he spoke to The New York Times and said that “Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone,” regarding trans athletes playing in girls’ sports. But he voted against the bill, telling The Independent “it goes too far.”
The bill will now head to the United States Senate, where Republicans would need to win the support of seven Democrats to have the bill make it to Trump’s desk.
Rep Becca Balint of Vermont said she thought that Democrats would oppose it in the Senate.
“I sure as hell hope so because I don't want my kids put at risk because we don’t see backbone over there,” she told The Independent.
The vote comes a week after 48 Democrats joined all House Republicans to pass the Laken Riley Act through the House, which would allow undocumented immigrants to be detained for crimes like theft.
Republicans hammered Democrats consistently both on immigration and supporting transgender people throughout last year’s cycle. But the vote on Tuesday shows Democrats are not as fearful of supporting transgender people as they are of Republican talking points on immigration.
“I don't even feel great about the Laken Riley act, I think that was not a good sign,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “But I think that we've, we've shored up on this one, and we have a long you know term ahead of us.”
