Ohio Legislature Overrides Governor's Veto of Bill on Transgender Health Care and Sports Participation

The Ohio Senate yesterday voted 24-8 to override Governor Mike DeWine's veto of HB 68, the Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act. The Ohio House of Representatives two weeks ago voted 65-28 to override. The bill, which will now become law, bars physicians from performing gender reassignment surgery or prescribing cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers to minors. It also prohibits transgender women from participating on women's athletic teams in schools that participate in interscholastic athletics and in public and private colleges. (See prior posting.) WCMH News reports on the Senate's vote and says that a court challenge to the legislation is expected.

Ohio Legislature Passes Bill on Transgender Treatment of Minors and Transgender Participation on Sports Teams

Yesterday, the Ohio legislature gave final approval to House Bill 68 (full text) which enacts the Saving Ohio Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act and the Save Women's Sports Act. The bill prohibits physicians from performing gender reassignment surgery or prescribing cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers to minors. It requires mental health professionals to obtain parental consent before diagnosing or treating a minor for a gender-related condition. The bill also prohibits transgender women from participating on women's athletic teams in schools that participate in interscholastic athletics and in public and private colleges. The bill additionally prohibits courts from denying or limiting parental rights because of a parent's decision to raise a child according to his or her biological sex or because the parent declines to consent to the child receiving gender transition services or counseling. The bill now goes to Governor Mike DeWine for his signature. The Cincinnati Enquirer, reporting on the bill, says it is unclear whether the governor will sign the legislation.

UPDATE: On Dec. 29, Governor DeWine vetoed the bill, but offered administrative alternatives. (See subsequent posting for details.)

9th Circuit Affirms Preliminary Injunction Against Idaho's Ban on Transgender Women in School Sports

 In Hecox v. Little, (9th Cir., Aug. 17, 2023), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction issued by the district court barring enforcement of Idaho's ban on transgender women participating on women's sports teams.  The ban applies to public primary and secondary schools and public colleges, as well as to other schools that compete against public schools or colleges. The Act also creates a procedure for disputing the sex of a member of a women's team. The court said in part:

The district court did not err in concluding that heightened scrutiny applies because the Act discriminates against transgender women by categorically excluding them from female sports, as well as on the basis of sex by subjecting all female athletes, but no male athletes, to invasive sex verification procedures to implement that policy....

... [T]he Act sweeps much more broadly than simply excluding transgender women who have gone through “endogenous puberty.” The Act’s categorical ban includes transgender students who are young girls in elementary school or even kindergarten. Other transgender women take puberty blockers and never experience endogenous puberty, yet the Act indiscriminately bars them from participation in women’s student athletics, regardless of their testosterone levels....

Second, as the district court found, there was very little anecdotal evidence at the time of the Act’s passage that transgender women had displaced or were displacing cisgender women in sports or scholarships or like opportunities....

We must “reject measures that classify unnecessarily and overbroadly by gender when more accurate and impartial lines can be drawn.”...

We agree with the district court that, contrary to the Act’s express purpose of ensuring women’s equality and opportunities in sports, the sex dispute verification process likely will discourage the participation of Idaho female students in student athletics by allowing any person to dispute their gender and then subjecting them to unnecessary medical testing and genital inspections. Because the Act’s means undermine its purported objectives and impose an unjustifiable burden on all female athletes in Idaho, the district court did not abuse its discretion by finding that the sex verification provision likely would not survive heightened scrutiny....

Judge Christen dissented in part, contending that the verification procedure discriminates on the basis of the team an athlete chooses to join, not on the basis of sex. She also contends that the trial court's injunction is not sufficiently specific or sufficiently tailored.  UPI reports on the decision.

Football Coach Sues After Being Fired for Religious Refusal of Covid Vaccine

Suit was filed last week by the former head football coach for Washington State University who was fired after refusing on religious grounds to comply with the state's Covid vaccine mandate for state employees. The Athletic Department refused to grant him a religious accommodation, questioning the sincerity of his religious objections as well as the University's ability to accommodate his objections. The complaint (full text) in Rolovich v. Washington State University, (WA Super. Ct., filed 11/14/2022), alleges that the coach's firing amounts to religious discrimination in violation of state and federal law and infringement of plaintiff's free exercise and due process rights. Campus Reform reports on the lawsuit.

South Carolina Governor Signs Law On Transgender Students In Sports

On Monday, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed  H4608, the Save Women's Sports Act (full text). The law requires school athletic teams to be designated based on biological sex at birth of team members, and provides in part:

(2)    Athletic teams or sports designated for males, men, or boys shall not be open to students of the female sex, unless no team designated for females in that sport is offered at the school in which the student is enrolled.

(3)    Athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex.

The law applies to interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic teams or sports that are sponsored by a public elementary or secondary school or public postsecondary institution, and to private school teams that compete against public schools. Washington Examiner reports on the new law.

South Dakota Governor Issues Executive Orders On Transgender Women In Sports After Vetoing Legislation On The Issue

On March 8, the South Dakota Legislature gave final passage to HB1217 which banned transgender women from participating on women's athletic teams or sports in schools and colleges in the state. It also included various enforcement provisions. On March 19, Governor Kristi Noem, instead of signing the bill, returned it to the legislature with a number of suggested changes. When the legislature failed to act on those changes, the Governor instead issued two executive orders to deal with the issue. Executive Order 2021-05 bans transgender girls from participation in girl's athletics in Grade K-12 public schools, but eliminates the causes of action and much of the paper work that was in HB1217. Executive Order 2021-06 calls for the Board of Regents to take the steps necessary within state law to implement a similar policy for colleges and universities controlled by the Board of Regents. CNN reports on the governor's actions.

Report Criticizes Collegiate Football Chaplaincy Programs

On Monday, the Freedom From Religion Foundation released  a report titled Pray to Play: Christian Coaches and Chaplains Are Converting Football Fields Into Mission Fields. According to the Report:

Public universities and their employees cannot endorse, promote, or favor religion. Yet, many football coaches at public universities bring in chaplains—often from their own church or even members of their own family—to prey on and pray with students, with no regard for the rights of those students or the Constitution. These coaches are converting playing fields into mission fields and public universities are doing nothing to halt this breach of trust. They are failing their student athletes.

FFRF sent copies of the Report, which includes a Model Policy On Religion In Athletics, to 15 schools that appear to have the most problematic chaplaincies.