Two feminist groups support GOP bill to ban trans women from women’s sports

Two self-identified “radical feminist” groups are siding with Republicans in backing a bill banning transgender women from playing in women’s sports leagues, according to a report.

The Women’s Liberation Front and Women’s Declaration International USA threw their support this week behind the GOP-sponsored legislation known as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” Fox News reported.

The bill — introduced by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla) earlier this year — aims to prevent transgender women and girls who were assigned male at birth from participating in women’s and girl’s sports.

It would amend Title IX, a landmark education bill that bans discrimination on the basis of sex, to define sex as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”

The self-described feminist groups said they believe in women’s rights as a category based on the sex of a person, not gender or gender identity.

The Women’s Declaration International USA, a nonpartisan organization, has established its own “Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights” in line with such thinking.

“We are a radical feminist organization, and Article Seven of the ‘Declaration on Women’s Sex-based Rights,’ which is grounded in a radical feminist critique of gender identity, demands that sports be kept single sex,” the group’s president Kara Dansky told Fox. “And we think that Representative Steube’s bill is in alignment with Article Seven of the Declaration.”

Dansky said she is a registered Democrat but completely disagrees with her party’s stance on the issue.

Board chair of the Women’s Liberation Front Lierre Keith also said she supports the legislation because it ensures fairness in women’s and girl’s sports leagues.

“Women and girls deserve to play in athletic competitions that are fair and safe,” Keith told Fox News in a statement. “Single-sex sports are critical to ensuring equal opportunity, scholarships, and careers, and new ‘gender identity’ policies threaten to set women back decades in progress.”

She noted that biological males have innate physical and athletic advantages to biological, cisgender females.

“Even the fastest female Olympians are still out-run by high school boys, and biological differences between males & females are not even remotely changed by hormones or surgery,” Keith said. 

In an interview with the outlet, Steube, the bill’s author, was glad for the support calling it an “interesting bipartisan conglomerate.”

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act will go to the House floor for a vote Thursday, where Steube believes it will pass with a number of Democrats signing on. It’s future, however, is less certain in the Senate, he said.

“I would imagine, depending on how many Democrats end up voting, that will probably give it a lot of support,” the Florida Republican said.

Still, many Democrats have slammed the bill.

“This bill is not about protecting women’s sports, it is about attacking trans kids,” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said during a House session on the bill last month, according to The Hill. “What a cowardly thing to be doing. Cowardly.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who has a transgender daughter, introduced an amendment that would retitle the bill the “Stigmatizing Vulnerable Children Act.”

Numerous studies have found that trans youth experience some of the highest rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts in the country. More than half of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered suicide in 2021, according to a national survey conducted by the Trevor Project last year.

The same survey found that LGBTQ children and teens who felt their school was supportive and affirming of their identity reported lower rates of suicide attempts.

A 16-year-old transgender girl from New Jersey said the bill would cut her off from the support system she found playing on her high school’s girl’s field hockey team.

“Sports are one of the most American experiences in any childhood, a federal sports ban would alienate me from my community, and prevent me from continuing to become a better version of myself,” Rebekah Bruesehoff said during a press conference outside the Capitol last month, according to The Hill.

“I’ve been raised and taught by my parents, coaches and teachers to be the kind of person who works actively to include people, make sure no one eats alone in the lunchroom and who stands up to bullies,” she said. “That’s what I’m doing here.”

President Biden has vowed to veto the bill if it makes it to his desk.