North Carolina Senate committee approves bill to protect women's sports

(The Center Square) — Legislation to preserve the integrity of women’s sports moved closer to reality with approval from the Senate Education Committee, one of four bills reported favorably on Wednesday.

Committee members moved House Bill 574, known as the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, to the upper chamber’s rules committee following amendments that removed restrictions on biological women playing on men’s teams, as well as references to collegiate intramural sports. The rules committee is typically the last stop before a floor vote.

The amendments followed negotiations between bill sponsors in the House and Senate after HB 574 and a similar Senate Bill 631 cleared their respective chambers by wide margins in April.

"This was an issue I brought before you many times," said Sen. Vickie Sawyer, R-Iredell, sponsor of SB631 who presented HB 574 to the committee on Wednesday. "My impetus … was to protect women."

The legislation would prohibit public middle and high schools, colleges and universities from allowing biological males to participate on female sports teams. The North Carolina High School Athletics Association allows student-athletes to petition to play on teams that do not align with their biological sex at birth with documentation from a medical provider and has approved the vast majority of petitions since 2019. Most were biological girls playing on boys teams.

Sawyer cited 17 examples of female athletes sidelined by transgender players in cycling, golf, track, disc golf, roller derby and swimming.

The examples included transgender cyclist Austin Killips, who won the 131-mile Belgian Waffle Ride in Hendersonville on Saturday by five minutes, as well as Lia Thomas, a Penn swimmer who beat University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines in the 2022 NCAA Championships after previously competing on the men’s team. Gaines has testified in support of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.

Senate Democrats and transgender activists alleged HB 574 would effectively prohibit transgender and intersex athletes from competing in sports, but Sawyer refuted the assertion.

"This is not telling anyone they can’t play, it’s only telling everyone women’s sports are for women," she said.

Testimony in favor of the bill included a statement from Payton McNabb, who suffered serious injuries when a biologically male volleyball player spiked the ball in her face last fall during her final season at Hiwassee Dam High in Murphy. Months after the incident, McNabb continues to suffer partial paralysis, chronic headaches, learning challenges and impaired vision.

"Biological boys playing against biological girls is dangerous," according to her prepared statement.

Also in favor was the NC Family Policy Council and former University of North Carolina women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell, who noted transgender athletes create fairness issues with scholarships and recruiting.

"We’ve worked so hard over the last 50 years to get where we are," she said. "We need to not allow transgenders to compete against females."

Other bills approved by the committee include HB 618 to empower a Charter School Review Board to streamline charter school decisions; HB 605 to create and coordinate school threat assessment teams; and House Bill 142 to increase penalties for school personnel who sexually abuse students and administrators who fail to report them.

Rep. John Torbett, R-Gaston, sponsor of HB 605 and HB 142, told the committee more than 120 educators have faced license revocations in recent years for sexual incidents with students, with an average of more than 20 cases per year. Those figures include only licensed teachers, excluding roughly 20 other school personnel per year accused of the same.

About 50 school personnel are currently facing charges or investigations, he said.

The potential penalty for school personnel who take indecent liberties or sexually abuse students would become a Class G felony under HB 142, while administrators who fail to report related terminations or resignations within five days would face a Class I felony.

A Class G felony carries a prison term of up to two years, seven months, while a Class I felony comes with up to a year in prison.

"The goal was to simply strengthen the penalty from what it had been," Superintendent Catherine Truitt testified. "Also to ensure those in leadership positions in schools do not sweep these instances under the rug."