The so-called “Save Women’s Sports Act” by Republican representative Sandy Solmon attempts to ban transgender student athletes from competing in school and college sports in Iowa, through an imposition of the gender binary that policies all youth through invasive procedures and testing.

The proposed act gives cisgender students the power to sue schools that allows trans athletes to participate. It also gives schools the power to sue if their team competes with a team that has trans athletes, and safeguards anti-trans policies by not allowing government entities to challenge the ban.

Following the theme of these copycat legislative attacks against trans girls and women’s right to play sports, this bill carries on a legacy of institutional transmisogyny and anti-Black racism by disguising itself as a ‘savior’ of womanhood.

The binary system of gender and sex goes against science, and is used to perpetuate harmful narratives that validate discrimination against trans and intersex folks.

It invites a systemic policing of gender against all youth through bio-essentialist ideas that perpetuate a white supremicist-patriarchy that molds cisgender women and girls into a category that needs ‘protection.’

These ideas discriminate against Black women like Caster Semenya, while genetic differences that give cisgender white men like Micheal Phelps an advantage, are celebrated.

Excluding trans girls and femme youth from participating in sports has negative outcomes for all youth. It reproduces patriarchal concepts of toxic masculinity that associate femininity with fragility.

Protecting ‘women’s sports’ would mean creating equitable access for women and femme folks with different lived experiences to participate and compete. But these bills are gatekeeping sports by attempting to let legislation define ‘womanhood’ rather than centering women’s narratives on what womanhood means to them.

There is no equity if gender is defined by patriarchal systems that are designed to restrict everyone, regardless of their gender identity. There is no equity if women who are trans are excluded. These bills are an attack on all youth, women and sports.

IA HF 184 has been carried over from last year’s legislative sessions.