BALTIMORE — UPDATE (2/1) - The House version of the bill was voted unfavorable in committee, meaning it won't get a vote on the full floor. The Senate version, SB381 has a bill hearing in committee next week.
ORIGINAL - It's sparking debate everywhere from Olympic committees to high school athletics.
Should transgender athletes be able to compete in women's sports?
Lawmakers in Annapolis gave their opinion today and hope to make it law.
Republican delegate Kathy Szeliga and Senator Mary Beth Carozza introduced a new bill called the Fairness in Girls’ Sports Act.
The bill would require certain school teams to be quote, "designated based on biological sex."
"It is absolutely 100% black and white, that there's a male-born advantage and we just cannot ever say well, you know, sometimes are based on feelings, those policies are inconsistent. The only way to have fair and meaningful sport is to say that sex that sport is based on sex and not feelings," Evie Edwards with the Independent Council on Women's Sports, said.
Members of the trans community against the bill say life shouldn't be boiled down to male v.s. female.
"The question of what is the male body and what is a female body is, again, kind of based on this binary concept of biological sex. And that's a construct that is not evidenced in reality. You know, we do not have tall people or short people, we have a gradient of people and heights," Lee Blinder, Executive Director of Trans Maryland, said.
Szeliga introduced a similar bill last year.
It did not pass.
