Senate Democrats block bill that would ban men from women’s sports
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 4, 2025 / 10:50 am (CNA).
Senate Democrats joined together to block Republican-backed legislation that would have permanently banned biological men from participating in women’s sports at K–12 schools and colleges that receive federal funding.
The bill’s Republican backers needed at least seven Democrats to support a procedural vote on the legislation for it to advance to a final vote in the Senate but did not receive any. Although a majority of senators backed the legislation on a 51-45 vote, the proposal failed to reach the necessary three-fifths supermajority.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, introduced the bill, dubbed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025. A similar bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives in late January with two Democrats joining the Republican majority in support of it.
The bill would have amended Title IX — a 1972 federal law that prohibits discrimination based on a person’s “sex.” It would have clarified that the word “sex” in Title IX’s section on athletics referred solely to a “person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth” — not a person’s self-professed gender identity.
Under the proposed language, biological men who identify as transgender women would be ineligible to compete in any athletics competition that is reserved for women.
Kristen Waggoner, the president of Alliance Defending Freedom, expressed disappointment in the Senate’s failure to advance the legislation.
“Women and girls deserve their own sports and spaces,” Waggoner said in a post on X.
“They deserve fairness and dignity, both on the playing field and in their locker rooms,” she said. “And they deserve to know exactly who is voting against fairness, safety, and equal opportunity for female athletes.”
Mike Zamore, the national director of policy and government affairs at the American Civil Liberties Union, in a statement commended the Democratic opposition to the legislation.
“As anyone paying attention to the actions of the [President Donald] Trump administration can tell you, this bill is simply one part of a sweeping effort to push transgender people out of public life altogether,” Zamore said. “We need more attention on actually ensuring fair and equal opportunity for all girls and women, not inflicting invasive and humiliating checks and bullying on kids to serve adults’ political purposes.”
On Trump’s first day in office, the president signed an executive order that strips federal funding for any K–12 school or college that allows biological men to compete in women’s athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) responded by updating its rules to ensure that only biological women can compete in such competitions. Several states with Democratic governors responded with lawsuits challenging the order.
Although the bill is nearly identical to the executive order, any executive order could be rescinded by a future administration. If the rules are codified into law, they can only be repealed through congressional action.
Last month, two committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) expressed their approval of Trump’s executive order that bans biological men from competing in women’s sports.
“We welcome the president’s executive order that protects opportunities for women and girls to compete in sports safely and fairly,” Diocese of Winona–Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron and Bishop David M. O’Connell of Trenton, New Jersey, said in a joint statement.
Barron is the chairman of the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, and O’Connell is the chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education.
