Texas Senate Passes Bill Requiring Athletes To Compete On Team That Matches Birth Gender | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Ryan Saavedra.

    The Texas Senate passed a bill on Friday night that requires student athletes to play on sports teams that match their birth gender and not the gender with which they identify.

    "The legislation is primed to become law after the state Senate voted 19-12 on Friday to pass House Bill 25, authored by state Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring," The Texas Tribune reported. "The Senate floor vote followed a swiftly held committee meeting where a 24-hour notice rule was suspended and the Senate's Health and Human Services Committee voted to advance the legislation. Under HB 25, students would only be permitted to compete on sports teams that correspond to the gender listed on their birth certificate that was assigned at or near the time of birth."

    The Texas House must now approve an amendment that the Senate added before it heads to Governor Greg Abbott's desk.

    "If the bill becomes law, Texas would be the eighth state to add such protections for women's sports," The Daily Wire reported. "The bill, HB 25, passed the state House after a preliminary approval vote of 76-54 and an identical official final vote following 10 hours of debate on the issue. One of the major supporters and authors of the bill, Republican Representative Valoree Swanson, argued on Thursday that passing the bill was a matter of both fairness and recognizing biological differences between men and women."

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