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Transgender women will no longer be able to compete in women’s sports at the collegiate level, as Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law Tuesday banning them from college women’s sports.
“Look, if you are a biological male, you are not going to be competing in women’s and girls’ sports in Alabama,” Ivey said. “It’s about fairness, plain and simple.”
Ivey had already signed into law a similar bill in 2021 banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams in K-12 schools.
The bill was one of a flurry of bills this legislative session that dealt with the LGBTQ+ community, and appears to be the only bill that will be moving forward out of this session.
The bill faced little resistance in the state Legislature, but the passage of the bill into law drew criticism from the ACLU of Alabama.
“Alabama lawmakers have long pretended to know better than doctors about what treatments patients are entitled to and need, that it is no surprise that legislators would think they know better than college coaches about what athletes they can recruit,” said Dillon Nettles, policy and advocacy director at the ACLU of Alabama. “Yet, the consequences of House Bill 261 go far beyond an athlete’s college eligibility. This bill is not only wrong, it’s unnecessary. Its only purpose is to shame transgender people publicly. The reality is that trans folks will always be part of our schools, universities, and our community. The ACLU of Alabama continues to stand with the LGBTQ+ community and fight with them against the onslaught of bad bills targeting them this session.”
Members of the LGBTQ community also protested the bill among numerous other bills during a march on the capitol earlier this month.
