Republicans try again to ban trans athletes in SC schools, citing increased support

When South Carolina tried to advance a bill that would ban transgender women and girls from participating in high school and middle school women’s sports, a group of House Republicans joined with their Democratic colleagues to shoot the effort down.

But that hasn’t slowed down advocates for the so-called “Save Women’s Sports Act,” who filed the bill a second time and got a Judiciary Committee subcommittee hearing on it Thursday morning.

Lawmakers voted three-to-one to pass the bill Thursday morning after hearing testimony from numerous South Carolinians against the bill. Republicans Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, Rep. Sylleste Davis, R-Berkeley, and Rep. Chris Murphy, R-Dorchester, who chairs the full Judiciary Committee, voted in favor of the bill. Democrat Rep. Spencer Wetmore, D-Charleston, voted against the bill.

The Republican lawmakers who voted in favor of the bill did not explain their support during the hearing.

However, advocates for the bill have said it’s necessary to foster a fair level of competition within women’s sports. They argue that transgender women and girls have a biological athletic advantage over their cisgender counterparts. Cisgender people identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.

Though LGBTQ advocates say the bill is discriminatory, McCravy, who supports the legislation, said that was not the bill’s intent.

“This bill is not about hurting or discrimination about any segment of society in any way,” McCravy told The State.

The legislation is getting an unusual second life. The Judiciary Committee already voted it down once in mid-March.

But, explaining the bill’s second chance, subcommittee chairman McCravy told The State he thinks the bill may have more support than lawmakers previously thought.

When a previous version of the bill was killed in committee, lawmakers did so by voice vote, meaning lawmakers did not have to individually record their vote, so the numbers for and against the bill were not tallied, McCravy said, adding that he was optimistic that the bill could receive a roll call vote in committee this time.

Judiciary Chairman Murphy, who decides which bills get hearings, declined to comment on why the initiative was getting a second chance.

The bill is part of a nationwide push to stop transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports, with proponents claiming that transgender women have a natural athletic advantage over their cisgendered counterparts. According to the LGBTQ rights group Freedom for All Americans, 35 similar bills had been filed across the country as of mid-March.

During the subcommittee meeting Thursday morning, some transgender advocates directly admonished S.C. Rep. Ashley Trantham, a Greenville Republican who sponsored both bills introduced this session. Deb Foreman, the president of PFLAG Spartanburg and co-founder of Uplift Outreach Center, organizations that are focused on helping transgender youth and adults, called the bill a “hateful piece of legislation.”

Foreman and others recounted a meeting between several transgender youth and lawmakers including Trantham.

“You told them how much you cared about them, but here we are today,” Foreman said, speaking to Trantham who was in the room. “I really don’t understand it.”

“Rep. Trantham, I have to ask you why you’re so determined to destroy the lives of transgender children and youth in South Carolina?” Foreman added.

Ahead of the meeting, LGBTQ advocacy groups expressed outrage to the bill’s reintroduction and vowed to fight against it.

Hill, a leader in the SC United for Justice & Equality coalition, called the push to revive the bill “abhorrent.”

“Twice already, leaders in Columbia have rejected this bill, an ugly attempt to target transgender kids, and it’s well past time for us to move beyond this manufactured problem,” Hill said in a statement Wednesday ahead of the subcommittee meeting. “Rep. (Ashley) Trantham and other anti-transgender politicians think that we won’t notice their desperate last-ditch attempts to endanger trans youth – but our powerful grassroots movement of LGBTQ advocates and allies in South Carolina is here and ready to fight.”

A group of 88 teachers and counselors across South Carolina issued a letter to lawmakers calling on them to toss the bill again.

“Transgender students, like other students, deserve the same opportunities to thrive as any other student,” the letter read. “That means being able to participate in school athletics, through which they can learn sportsmanship, leadership and self discipline, and build a sense of belonging with their peers.”

Emily Mayer, a teacher from Bluffton, called the bill an effort “to single out transgender students in middle and high school for discrimination.”

“This bill targets trans kids and tells them that they are not allowed to access the myriad benefits of athletics. It tells them that they don’t deserve the same chances to learn teamwork, sportsmanship, leadership and self discipline as their peers,” Mayer said in a statement. “It tells them that they don’t belong. I hope lawmakers will come to understand that our school communities are stronger when we are accepting of all, and that we must oppose any effort to discriminate against people because of who they are.”

After about a half hour of testimony against the bill, Wetmore, a Charleston Democrat, said she didn’t understand why this bill was a priority when the subcommittee could be taking up other business.

“I just don’t understand,” Wetmore said. “I don’t understand what we’re doing. I don’t understand why our politics depend on demonizing other people.”

Wetmore was the lone lawmaker to vote against the bill Thursday morning.

Transgender girls and women trying to compete in women’s sports is rare in South Carolina, critics of the bill say.

Currently, the South Carolina High School League has a process for schools to apply to allow a transgender student to participate in women’s sports. Very few transgender students have applied to play in sports, with only four students going through the process since it was instituted in 2016. Two students, both trans girls, have been granted waivers.

State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman also opposes the bill. She has called it “not something we need to legislate in Columbia.”

“My responsibility as state superintendent is to make sure every child feels protected when they are in school and when they’re on the athletic field,” Spearman said when the bill was in subcommittee. “I believe this bill does damage to that.”