BATON ROUGE, La. – The House Committee on Education voted 7-1 Wednesday to advance a bill to prevent transgender women from participating in girls’ sports.
The bill has already passed the Senate and will now proceed to the House floor.
Senate Bill 44, called the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, states that “teams designated for females are not open to participation by biological males.”
The bill requires that biological sex be determined by the student-athlete’s official birth certificate. The biological sex would then determine whether the athlete participate on a male or female sports team.
“We’ve had a poll done in the state of Louisiana that shows over 80% of Louisianans support protecting women’s sports for biological females,” Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, said.
All intercollegiate, interscholastic and intramural teams in any school receiving state funding would be subject to these rules. 
Anne Metz, a retired collegiate athlete and a player in the Women’s Premier Soccer League, was blindsided by a transgender female athlete during a game. She sustained a concussion from the impact that prevents her from participating in anything more than light exercise. 
“As a retired athlete and coach, I fear for the safety of my players,” Metz said. “I fear for the dissolution of women’s sports, and I fear for what girls have to face [when] they play.”
The proposed law states that studies have suggested that women’s athletic performances will never match those of men and any other perspectives “are simply a denial of science.”
No specific study is cited in the bill.
While there are no transgender females grappling now for acceptance on female sports teams in Louisiana high schools, according to Forum for Equality, a statewide LGBTQ human rights advocacy group, lawmakers feel that the bill is a preemptive measure ensuring equality and equity for biologically female athletes.
Sarah Jane Guidry, executive director of Forum for Equality, said the lack of transgender females in women’s sports reflects the lack of acceptance trans athletes already experience.
“This discrimination and the fear is already existing within our school systems and shows them that they’re unwanted already,” Guidry said. 
If this bill is enacted, Guidry said transgender children will “miss out on all of these important childhood experiences and all the lessons that it teaches.”
Ponchatoula Women’s Basketball Head Coach and teacher Patricia Hebert Landaiche said Title IX was created to protect the rights of biological women and allowing biological male athletes to compete would remove the validity of Title IX and take away “the rights that we have fought for the last 50 years.”
“When you have a biological male come out and try for my team,” she said,“it takes that one biological female spot, then two, then more. Then, all of a sudden, you have a team of biological males.”
Rep. Charles Owen, R-Rosepine, said that equity and equality for female athletes is “less bad.”
“It’s not equal yet,” Owens said.  “And this [bill] would be a wall of protection to help it keep moving in the right direction.”
In addition, the bill notes that no teams would be allowed to be disbanded under Title IX for the purpose of creating a coeducational or mixed team that would result in the detriment of students of the female biological sex.
“Trans women are women,” Guidry said. “That…first and foremost should be acknowledged. The language in this bill obviously does not show that respect.”
Exactly one year ago, Rep. Beryl Amedée, R-Houma, proposed the same bill that did not make it through committee. Mizell said the bill was no different to SB44. 
“Girls and women deserve the opportunity to compete in fair competition where their hard work pays off and where they have a chance to enjoy the victory and many other benefits that flow from athletics,” Amedée said in last year’s House Committee Education hearing on May 4, 2021.
Allowing biological males into female sports “destroys women’s athletic opportunities” and “forces them to spectators in their own sport,” Amedée said.