ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia lawmakers dumped the thorny problem of whether transgender athletes should be allowed to play high school sports onto the state's main athletic association in a last-minute move as the 2022 session came to a close.
Senators had voted earlier to flatly ban transgender boys and girls from playing on the school sports teams matching their gender identity, but House Speaker David Ralston had blocked that measure.
Instead, in a move so rushed that some lawmakers may not have known what they were doing, the General Assembly said that the Georgia High School Association “may” ban transgender girls who play for public schools from competing against other girls.
House Bill 1084 passed the House 98-71 and then, after the clock crept past the customary midnight adjournment time, it passed the Senate 32-21
Ralston, a Blue Ridge Republican, likened the decision to how the NCAA regulates transgender participation in college sports.
“We’re going to let them make those determinations,” Ralston told reporters after lawmakers adjourned for the year. “And we have an oversight committee on that. But that’s really where these determinations need to be made.”
Democrats reacted angrily to the legislation, shoved through in the closing minutes of the session without a full explanation.
“This bill targets the most vulnerable Georgians, transgender youth," said Rep. Matthew Wilson, an openly gay Brookhaven Democrat who is running for insurance commissioner. "It sets us up not only to be on the wrong side of history and morality, but on the wrong end of litigation.”
The measure was included in House Bill 1084, which also bans the teaching of “divisive concepts” on race and was amended to set up an outside oversight committee over the Georgia High School Association. The...
