A bill that would ban transgender women from collegiate sports passed on second reading in the Senate Tuesday, with amendments proposed by Democrats voted down by the Republican supermajority.
State Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, authored House Bill 1041 prohibiting a male, based on the student’s biological sex at birth, from participating on a women’s athletic team. The bill also allows for a student or parent to file a grievance if a college isn’t following the law.
Davis testified before the Senate Education and Career Development Committee that House Bill 1041 mirrors — in language and bill title — the piece of legislation the legislature passed in 2022 banning transgender athletes from girls’ sports at the K-12 level, but it extends it to the collegiate level.
“House Bill 1041 ensures fairness in collegiate sports which is essential to protecting opportunities for our female athletes here in Indiana,” Davis previously said. “House Bill 1041 helps maintain a level playing field.”
Davis testified that she was at the White House in February when President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.
The day after Trump signed the executive order, the National Collegiate Athletic Association amended its transgender athlete policy to limit competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth. NCAA President Charlie Baker recently testified before a U.S. Senate committee that fewer than 10 student-athletes are transgender.
Sen. J.D. Ford, D-Indianapolis, proposed two amendments that would prohibit student-athletes from being required — as part of resolving a grievance submitted — to expose their genitals or intimate body parts at the K-12 grade level and the collegiate level.
Ford also submitted an amendment that would only allow students who were deprived of an athletic opportunity or directly or indirectly injured to file a grievance. Ford also submitted an amendment to allow college officials to discipline students who filed a report in bad faith.
Sen. Stacey Donato, R-Logansport, who is one of the Senate sponsors of the bill, said the amendments should be defeated because they stray from the language in the K-12 transgender athlete bill.
All four of Ford’s amendments failed along party lines, with all Republicans voting against the amendments and all Democrats voting in favor of the amendments.
Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-Indianapolis, offered an amendment to ensure the state achieves the bill’s goal of “protecting the rights of young people in athletics.”
The amendment addresses the “fundamental rights that we would believe that youth have in athletics,” which have been adopted by multiple sports organizations, including the U.S. Olympics and Paralympics Committee, the YMCA of the USA, ESPN, and more, Hunley said.
The amendment would’ve listed a child’s right: to play sports, to safe and healthy environments, to qualified program leaders, to developmentally appropriate play, to share in the planning and delivery of their activities, to an equal opportunity for personal growth, to be treated with dignity and to enjoy themselves.
Donato said the amendment did not address collegiate athletics and urged her colleagues to defeat the bill.
Hunley said the majority of collegiate athletes start out as a child playing their sport.
“Our collegiate athletes started off as a youth participant. That is the talent pipeline. In order for them to get to the collegiate level, they’ve got to start somewhere,” Hunley said.
The amendment failed in a voice vote with all Republicans voting against it and Democrats voting in favor.
The bill will move forward for third and final reading by the Senate.
akukulka@post-trib.com