A bill that is intended to level the playing field for women athletes has received final approval by the Wyoming Senate. The bill would ban transgender athletes from playing on girl’s or women’s sports teams. It passed 24 to 5 with no debate.
Sara Burlingame with the group Wyoming Equality said the Wyoming Activities Association has had an effective policy regulating transgender athletes for eight years with no problems. The bill now puts the government in charge of who can play women’s sports.
“I mean, maybe the problem with the policy is it provides local control and respects all students and creates a level playing field,” said Burlingame. “And that’s not what we want right now. We want enemies and polarization…and a thoughtful local policy doesn’t play into that.”
Burlingame said she’s had positive conversations with House members and is hopeful they will defeat the bill when they consider it in the next few days.
