Texas is the latest state to pass law restricting transgender students' participation in school sports

In 2017, Republican lawmakers in Texas set their sights on trying to pass a “bathroom bill," prohibiting transgender people from using the facilities matching their gender identity.

Texas was essentially trying to copy a 2016 North Carolina law, named HB2, that required transgender people to use bathrooms in public places that matched the sex listed on birth certificates. North Carolina paid the price for the law, as the NBA moved its 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, and the NCAA pulled seven championship events from the state for the 2016-17 season. The NCAA ended its boycott of North Carolina in 2017, after the state's "bathroom bill" was repealed.

The 2017 bill in the Lone Star State died soon after that, but the focus of those elected officials later turned to transgender youth.

On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that restricts transgender students' participation in school sports. House Bill 25 takes effect Jan. 18 and effectively bans transgender students from playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identities.

The author of H.B. 25, which requires "public school students to compete in interscholastic athletic competitions based on biological sex," is Texas Republican state Rep. Valoree Swanson, who said the law's objective is to maintain fairness in girls' sports and uphold Title IX.

“This is all about girls and protecting them in our UIL sports," Swanson told Dallas' CBS 11 last week. "I'm excited that we have the opportunity today to stand up for our daughters, our granddaughters and all our Texas girls."

Swanson and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, another Texas Republican who supports the law, could not be reached for comment when contacted multiple times by USA TODAY Sports this week.

INVESTIGATION: Conservatives want to ban transgender athletes from girls sports. Their evidence is shaky.

Several states now have similar laws

More than 1.4 million adults identify as transgender, according to a study conducted in 2016 by the Williams Institute, a UCLA School of Law think-tank focusing on LGBTQ issues. According to the study, 0.7% of youth ages of 13-17 identify as transgender.

Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Montana and South Dakota have enacted similar laws as Texas, with Idaho, West Virginia and Florida in current legal fights over their bills.

Across the nation, state lawmakers supporting transgender athlete bans have painted a picture that girls sports teams will be overrun by athletes with insurmountable physical advantages. But a recent USA TODAY investigation of the lobbying effort shows that narrative has been built on vague examples that have been overstated or are untrue, and lawmakers have accepted them as fact with little effort to verify their accuracy.

The more than 70 bills lawmakers have offered in at least 36 states would suggest a bigger problem facing girls sports, but that didn’t check out. Instead, USA TODAY could find few transgender athletes participating and even fewer complaints about them.

Opponents argue that passing bills such as H.B. 25 directly violates Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, and the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment.

Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas, an advocacy organization for the LGBTQ community, called the law "fictitious and baseless," with misinformation equal to "political theater" that's harming transgender youth.

Martinez told USA TODAY Sports that the concern moving forward once Jan. 18 arrives is that constant bullying, harassment and treatment of transgender people will continue. He said he received calls for 17 consecutive days in September about emergency situations where a child's safety was in question.

Texas' governing body on high school sports, the University Interscholastic League, states that a student’s gender is determined by what's listed on their birth certificate. The UIL has accepted birth certificate modification when a student has their sex changed to coincide with their gender identity.

Could NCAA pull Texas events?

Multiple NCAA basketball tournaments are scheduled to take place in Texas in the coming years. Texas Christian University and the University of Texas at San Antonio are slated to host early rounds of the men's tournament next year. Houston and San Antonio are set to host the men's Final Four in 2023 and 2025, with Dallas scheduled to host the women's Final Four in 2023.

The NCAA Board of Governors said earlier this year it supports transgender student-athletes who want to compete on the collegiate level, and that it would "closely monitor" states to determine whether championships could be welcoming and respectful of all participants.

That leaves open the possibility that Texas could conceivably lose NCAA title games and events.

"The NCAA requires that championships be held only where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination," the board said in its statement.

USA TODAY Sports reached out to the NCAA this week but did not receive a response.

'There is no need for the law'

"The fight for inclusion for transgender athletes has been an ongoing battle for at least the last half-decade," said Andrea Segovia, a policy and field coordinator for the Transgender Education Network of Texas.

If someone were to file a lawsuit seeking a preliminary injection in federal court, the Texas law could possibly be stopped before taking effect in January, said Shelly Skeen, senior attorney at Lambda Law in Dallas.

"There is no need for the law," Skeen said. "There hasn't been one example that we are aware of that this has actually happened. There is no evidence here that a problem needs to be solved."

Skeen said what Texas is doing is a direct violation of equal protection laws, more specifically, discriminating against someone's sex, and a Title IX violation. It would impact more than 1,000 of the state's K-12 school districts.

"They went after a group of kids who are having a really tough time in this world just existing," Segovia said. ... We are trying to make inclusive spaces for trans kids, because they are going to need it."

Advocacy groups such as Equality Texas and TENT want the same thing: For kids to have freedom to live their lives and play sports without being discriminated against.

"It's hard to talk about and not get emotional," Segovia said. "I look at this past year and the fact that we had close to 80 bills attacking LGBTQ people, but mostly attacking trans youth.

"I mean, tell me you hate trans people without telling me you hate trans people."

Contributing: USA TODAY's Rachel Axon and Brent Schrotenboer

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas latest state to restrict transgender students in school sports