Senate Republicans wasted no time in targeting transgender people on day one of the Georgia General Assembly’s legislative session. The first bill introduced Monday, Jan. 13, would ban transgender students from participating in women’s sports in middle and high schools and colleges.
Outside the Gold Dome on Monday, more than 100 LGBTQ+ activists gathered at Liberty Plaza, for a “Stand Up for Trans Georgians” rally against the anticipated anti-trans legislation. They also rallied to show support for transgender Georgians who face attacks by a GOP-led General Assembly emboldened by the re-election of Donald Trump, whose anti-trans attacks were central to his campaign.
“I am here to let it be known to every legislator sitting comfortably across the street in the Capitol that we see you and we are watching you this session and every single session after, every bill you propose, every vote you cast, every word you say,” said Dean Steed, a Black trans man who works with Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative (SnapCo.)
“To those legislators who think that they can pass anti-trans and anti-Black policies without consequence, I want to make it loud and clear that we are ready. You all thought the movement was sleeping. No, we were just building,” Steed said. “We will make our presence known throughout the halls of the Capitol, day in and day out, so legislators, consider this a warning. And to my community, consider this a call to action, because when we fight, we win.”
State Senate Bill 1 targets trans athletes; similar House legislation expected to follow
State Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming) introduced Senate Bill 1, named the “Fair and Safe Athletic Opportunities Act,” early Monday. SB 1 is based on recommendations released in December by the Senate Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports chaired by Dolezal.
SB 1 includes requiring schools that host or sponsor sporting events to provide separate changing and dressing facilities for male and female athletes based on their sex assigned at birth.
Also under SB 1, middle and high schools, along with colleges, including participating private schools, would be required to designate interscholastic sports teams as either male, female, or co-ed, based on the participant’s assigned sex at birth.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who created the special senate committee last summer, praised SB 1, saying it was “common sense to everyone but the most radical liberals in Georgia.”
“Biological men do not belong in women’s sports, period,” said Lt. Governor Burt Jones in a news release.
“The Senate has always led the way on protecting women’s sports and with Senate Bill 1, we will continue to be on the right side of this common-sense issue,” he said. “I look forward to Senate Bill 1 becoming law and the protection of women’s sports becoming a reality for all female athletes in Georgia.”
Georgia would become the 26th state that prohibits transgender student participation in sports with the passage of SB 1.
House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington) is also advocating similar anti-trans legislation. At a Jan. 8 pre-session press conference, he said banning trans athletes from playing in school sports was a priority.
He said such legislation is needed to ensure girls compete on a “level playing field” and that the House is expected to codify legislation “to protect that area” early in the session.
“We want them to have the opportunity to excel and to win, to be first, but they need a level playing field,” he said. “So the girls will compete against girls, and boys will participate against boys. And that’s how it should be.”
Rough Draft asked Burns a few questions at the press conference on why he believed such legislation was necessary.
RD: With so many issues that are facing the state … why do you think transgender people in sports needs to be a priority?
Burns: [When] you dedicate the first 15,16 years of your life to being competitive in a sport, I think it’s only fair that you know who your competition is. And we don’t need to change the rules. I think it’s fair for both sides. You know who you’ve competed against, and if you dedicate your life to prepare yourself to be an athlete, to be successful, then you know who your competition is and that’s how it should be.
RD: Have there been many trans athletes signing up for sports in Georgia?
Burns: Well, the point is, what we do here a lot of times, is we prevent problems and we anticipate issues that will impact people’s lives. And I can assure you that children that have trained all those years, and then they have to … they are not competing on a level playing field. Then I would say to you, that’s a problem we don’t need. We need to be proactive and not react.
RD: Do you know a transgender person?
Burns: I absolutely do. I have friends.
RD: Have they said anything about your stance on this?
Burns: No, they haven’t. And certainly I understand the perspective, but I think it’s fair that you know the rules up front, and it’s easier to understand and then certainly to comply with the rules.
‘Stand Up for Trans Georgians’ rally participants ready to fight anti-trans legislation
Rev. Andi Woodworth, a pastor at Neighborhood Church in Candler Park, attended the “Stand Up for Trans Georgians” rally with her parents, Linda and Woody Woodworth.
“As a trans person, I want to make sure that I can show up and use my voice, use my presence, to be a witness to the connections that we have together, and also to recognize that some of the folks inside this building behind me want to remove rights for me and my community,” said Andi Woodworth.
“Trans people are not a problem. We don’t need a solution,” added Linda Woodworth, who is a member of PFLAG in her hometown of Covington.
Woody Woodworth said he was at the rally to support his daughter, but also because he is concerned about the rhetoric used by Republican lawmakers when talking about transgender people.
“The language that comes out of this building behind us, the Capitol, can be so harmful to so many. And they do so just to make points, gather power,” he said. “They’re picking o on people who they feel won’t fight back, but here in this demonstration, they’re showing that people do fight back.”
Peter Nunn of Duluth said trans rights are consistently under attack, making him motivated to attend rallies and speak out.
“As a queer person myself, it’s really important to show up for other marginalized groups,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who feel like this isn’t their fight, but I know that unless we’re all fighting for each other, we’re all fighting alone, and so trans people need us.”
Georgia lawmakers targeting trans women in sports is an entry point into further trans discrimination, he said.
“There’s not a ton of trans kids in sports that are affected by this. However, the message is very clear to trans kids that you don’t belong, we don’t belong,” he said. “The messaging that’s said by legislators is extremely harmful for the mental health of young people.”
At a press conference inside the Georgia State Capitol following the rally, Lambda Legal senior attorney Carl Charles said SB 1 would be an “all-out ban on trans youth in sports.”
“How disappointing that this is such a priority when there are so many other concerns for Georgians in our state, so many other issues that people need to have addressed by our legislators,” he said.
Across the country, there are 115 bills targeting trans people in 25 states, he said.
“That sounds bleak, but it should give us strength that we are not alone in the fight against people who want trans Georgians and trans people in the United States to be pushed aside, Charles said. “But we are here to say, ‘Not on our watch.’”
