Governor DeSantis Signs Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, Bans Males from Competing Against Female Athletes

The Florida legislature passed SB1028 a bill to protect women’s competitive sports from the infiltration of male transgender athletes.  The law states that women and girls must play on the sport teams of the “biological sex” on their birth certificate. Therefore, a transgender girl whose birth certificate denotes her “biological sex” as male, cannot play on a girls’ sports team.

Governor’s Office – “The bill specifies that an athletic team or sport that is designated for females, women, or girls may not be open to students of the male sex, based on the student’s biological sex listed on the student’s official birth certificate at the time of birth. The bill applies the requirements to interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic teams or sports that are sponsored by a public secondary school, high school, public college, or university institution. The bill provides civil remedies for those who suffer harm by violations of the section of law.” (link)

Despite threats from the NCAA to ban Florida from hosting NCAA championship events, today Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law saying: “Some of these organizations say they’re not going to hold events if you do this, just let me say very clearly, in Florida, we’re going to do what’s right, we will stand up to corporations, they are not going to dictate the policies in this state. We will stand up to groups like the NCAA, who think that they should be able to dictate the policies in different states.”

SB 1028 Top Line Summary:

• Maintains opportunities for female athletes to demonstrate their strength, skills, and athletic abilities and to provide them with opportunities to obtain recognition and accolades, college scholarships, and numerous other long-term benefits that result from participating and competing in athletic endeavors.
• Strengthens educational opportunities for military families by allowing state universities to expand high-quality developmental laboratory schools to serve communities around military installations.
• Paves innovative pathways for students to access industry certification and workforce education by allowing Florida College System and State University System institutions to sponsor charter schools to meet regional workforce demands.
• Empowers students to pursue high-wage STEM professions by expanding access to the Florida Private Student Assistance Program grant award to include full-time certificate-seeking students at an aviation maintenance school.
• Requires each public school to provide parents with information on the role swimming lessons and water safety education plays in saving lives, including free and reduced cost options for swimming lessons and safety courses.  (LINK)