The wording of Senate Bill 2536 may be vague but Governor Tate Reeves’s vow to stop “transgenderism” wasn’t as he tweeted his intent to sign Senate Bill 2536.
And that may be the undoing of this bigoted bill when it reaches the doors of the supreme court.
The bill requires the Mississippi High School Activities Association or any higher education institution that is a member of the NCAA, NAIA, or NJCCA to designate teams as:
(a) “Males,” “men” or “boys”;
(b) “Females,” “women” or “girls”; or
(c) “Coed” or “mixed.”
(2) Athletic teams or sports designated for “females,” “women” or “girls” shall not be open to students of the male sex.
The state House voted 81-28 Wednesday to pass the so-called Mississippi Fairness Act. It passed the state Senate last month, 34-9. Gov. Tate Reeves said Thursday that he will sign it.
Mississippi’s act is the first of its ilk to successfully pass through both chambers this year. Some have failed in committee, including in South Dakota on Wednesday and in Utah last month, ABC News Reports.
A similar bill also died in committee in Mississippi last year. Republican state Sen. Angela Hill, who sponsored that bill and the one that passed the House Wednesday, told ABC News she was inspired to introduce the legislation after learning about two girls’ championship-winning transgender high school runners in Connecticut, where state policy allows high school athletes to compete as the gender with which they identify. Mississippi does not have a policy regarding transgender high school athletes.
“If we do not move to protect female sports from biological males who have an unfair physiological advantage, we will eventually no longer have female sports,” she said.