HB 972 | Banning trans girls from school sports

Session: 2021-2022

ACLU-PA Position: Opposes

HB 972 would ban transgender girls and women from participating on athletic teams or in sports designated for “females, women or girls.” This ban would apply to students participating in interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural or club athletic teams or sports sponsored by a public primary or high school, a public institution of higher education, or any school or institution where students or teams compete against a public school or college.

Rather than addressing real challenges facing student athletes, such as a lack of equal resources for girls’ sports, HB 972 instead opts for a “solution” in search of a problem. The ban proposed by HB 972 would have detrimental and potentially devastating effects on the health of young trans Pennsylvanians and it would almost certainly meet the same fate as similar policies enacted in other states—blocked by courts for violating federal civil rights law and constitutional guarantees of equal protection.

Governor Wolf vetoed HB 972 on July 8, 2022.