North Dakota outlaws participation of transgender athletes in women's school competitions

North Dakota Governor, Doug Burgum, signed two new laws which will ban trans athletes from participating on women's sports teams or competitions in elementary schools, high schools and colleges. These measures are being enacted just days before Congress votes on a bill "to veto school sports programs from allowing individuals whose biological sex at birth was male to participate in programs intended for women or girls."

The first of the bills, H.B. 1249, protects athletics for school-aged girls and boys under the traditional protections of Title IX. The second, H.B. 1489, applies the same measure to college sports.

The governor assured that so far, "there still has not been a single-recorded incident of a transgender girl playing or entering the process to even ask to play on a North Dakota girls’ team." Furthermore, he added that "concerns raised last session about such policies jeopardizing the ability to host regional and national collegiate tournaments have not materialized in the roughly 20 states that have passed similar legislation."

Some 20 states passed similar laws

Before Burgum signed both pieces of legislation, the North Dakota Legislature this year passed the two bills introduced by state congressmen from the Republican Party, which has a large majority in both the state House and Senate.

North Dakota is not the first state to legislate on the participation of trans athletes in women's sports. In March, the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee approved a legislative proposal to prevent trans athletes from competing in collegiate competitions that do not correspond to their birth gender. Around twenty states implemented similar measures.