The Republican-controlled North Carolina state House gave final approval to a bill Thursday that would ban transgender girls and women from competing on middle school, high school and college sports teams that align with their gender identity.
The state House voted 62-43, largely along party lines, to approve an amended version of the bill passed in the state Senate by a vote of 31-17 earlier this week. The measure now heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, whose office slammed Republicans for "spending their time on political culture wars" rather than "working to invest in our schools and pay our teachers more."
"Republican governors in other states have vetoed these bills that bully vulnerable children because they know these decisions should be left to schools, parents and sports associations," Jordan Monaghan, Cooper's deputy communications director, added in a statement to CNN.
The governor's office did not share with CNN whether Cooper plans to veto the legislation. However, the legislature's Republican supermajority has the ability to override a potential veto, as they have done several times this year when Cooper has sought to block controversial measures.
House Bill 574 states that a "student's sex shall be recognized based solely on the student's reproductive biology and genetics at birth," and would require sports teams to be designated as for males, men or boys; females, women or girls; or coed or mixed.
The bill specifies that "students of the male sex" cannot play on girls' sports teams but does not address transgender boys playing on boys' teams.
Supporters of the bill claim that transgender women have a physical advantage over cisgender women and argue that the bill ensures fairness.
"HB 574 is a rational, common-sense bill that requires biological men to compete against biological men, not biological women, in high school and collegiate sports in NC," said bill sponsor Rep. Erin Paré in a tweet last week. "We need to fight for fairness in women's sports, no question."
However, a 2017 report in the journal Sports Medicine found "no direct or consistent research" on trans people having an athletic advantage over their cisgender counterparts.
Opponents say the ban is discriminatory.
The Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, called on the governor to veto the legislation.
"As these politicians know, HB 574 does nothing to address the real challenges in women's sports, which include chronic underfunding, unequal pay, lack of access and harassment and abuse of athletes," said Cathryn Oakley, senior director of legal policy for the HRC. "This bill only perpetuates discrimination and stigma against the LGBTQ+ community, particularly against transgender and nonbinary people."
With the passage of this bill, North Carolina joins a slew of states who have advanced several anti-trans bills, including those that limit transgender athletes' ability to compete on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that limits transgender athletes in college sports and Alabama enacted similar restrictions last month.
