A House committee in the Wyoming Legislature forwarded policies to keep transgender people from the school sports teams and bathrooms of their choice.
Those measures are marching through the House at the same time as parallel legislation aiming to achieve the same goals is moving through the Senate, and as Pres. Donald Trump signs executive actions targeting trans citizens nationally.
HB 60 - Student eligibility in sports
Similar to the so-called “What is a Woman Act,” the “Student eligibility in sports” bill defines the terms “men” and “women” by whether people produce eggs for fertilization or sperm and would codify those definitions in state statute.
HB 60 would ban students from team sports starting in kindergarten through higher education if students’ gender identities don’t match the bill’s definitions, extending the restrictions that began with a law passed in 2023 banning trans girls from playing high school sports.
“The issues of fairness and equity and safety … that's what we're addressing,” said Rep. Martha Lawley (R-Worland), the sponsor of both HB 60 and a separate bill to restrict trans people’s access to certain public spaces. “We now live in a society of a more subjective view in the area of gender. Some have a more subjective view, so that's why we're speaking [to] this.”
In her testimony to the House Education Committee on Jan. 24, Lawley argued the state needed her bill after the University of Wyoming (UW) women’s volleyball team forfeited games against a rival that allegedly had a trans player.
“When I was going door to door during my campaign, I heard about this and the next bill [HB 72] more than I heard about property taxes,” she said. “I would often hear, ‘You must get boys out of girls’ sports [and] boys out of girls’ restrooms.’ This is common sense to the people of Wyoming.”
But some transgender Wyomingites view the bill, and other restrictions introduced to the ongoing legislative session, as unnecessary measures borne out of systemic prejudice and fearmongering.
“[HB 60] is just inhumane and discriminatory to LGBTQIA [people] and to trans individuals and two-spirit individuals across the state of Wyoming,” Layha Spoonhunter told Wyoming Public Radio in an interview. They’re a community activist working on the Wind River Reservation who’s two-spirit, Eastern Shoshone, Northern Arapaho and Oglala Lakota.
“What we have to guarantee to people, regardless of their identity, is [their] ability to participate in sports, the ability to live their life openly,” they said. “But I feel like any one of these bills is trying to turn over 60 years of activism back, from Stonewall, even before Stonewall, to now.”
Along with representing a backlash to decades of LGBTQ+ activism, Spoonhunter pointed to HB 60’s lack of a specific enforcement mechanism.
If the bill did contain that enforcement clause, Spoonhunter said it would constitute an even more severe erosion of trans Wyomingites’ civil rights.
Others who testified about HB 60 mentioned the bill’s exceptions for students who identify as intersex.
Intersex people have reproductive or sexual features that don't fit into solely male or female sex classifications. Researchers estimate that up to 1.7% of people are born with intersex traits. That would be about 9,806 Wyomingites.
In the definition of terms, the draft measure appears to exclude intersex individuals, stating that those who would normally produce eggs or sperm as the case may be, “but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption,” would not be subject to the ban on sports teams.
“The average age that someone knows that they’re intersex is 21, so the idea that all intersex babies are identified at birth or at puberty … is just not accurate,” said Sara Burlingame, the executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Wyoming Equality. “We would just ask that you look more carefully at that language, and if there is a way to make clear that they are not obligated to prove that [they’re] intersex in any sort of exam or anything like that, that that would be a kindness.”
Another House bill, HB 274, would extend the ban on trans athletes already in place to institutions of higher education. It was heard by the House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee on Jan. 31.
Similarly, in the Senate, SF 44 mirrors Lawley’s ban but applies only to community colleges and the University of Wyoming. It passed the upper chamber and is waiting to be assigned a committee in the House.
And finally, Wyoming’s sole U.S. representative, Harriet Hageman, co-sponsored a similar measure at the federal level that passed the U.S. House this month.
HB 72 - Protecting women's privacy in public spaces act
Another House bill aims to forbid transgender people from using the bathrooms, locker rooms and other public spaces of their choice if those spaces don’t match their sex assigned at birth.
HB 72 passed out of the House Education Committee on Jan. 30 and will now be considered by the full chamber. It has the same definitions for “man” and “woman” that HB 60 contains.
Lawley, the bill’s sponsor, testified to the committee that the new law is necessary to protect women from what she and others say are “biological men.”
“We live in a very different world than when I grew up, in a different world than I would have expected even 10 years ago, but this is where we are,” she said. “[HB 72] ensures that women and girls are safe and respected in places where privacy is essential: bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, changing rooms, overnight accommodations and correctional facilities. The bill provides clarity and creates consistent policies that prioritize privacy and safety in public high schools and higher education.”
Contrary to the belief that trans people are an aberration of the modern era, Spoonhunter said people with mixed gender identities were here before Wyoming was a state.
“There were always transgender people here on this continent, even before the founding of the United States,” they said. “To try and pass legislation that somehow will limit our freedoms, that doesn't mean that the trans community is going to go away in any shape or form. These bills aren't going to push the community out of visibility. The community will be even more visible now, because we’re going to make sure that the community that is still here has something that they can call their own.”
HB 72 and the “What is a Woman Act” are particularly perplexing for Spoonhunter because of how they might affect Pride celebrations in the state.
“These facilities that we hold our Pride events in – will they also be limiting individuals who are trans [from] us[ing] a certain restaurant?” they said. “Will that be part of the agreement to these facilities?”
Similar to Lawley’s HB 72, SF 62 also bans trans people from using public facilities, but specifically students in schools kindergarten through 12th grade. It recently passed the upper chamber and landed in the House for consideration.
Nationally, the Defense Intelligence Agency within the U.S. Department of Defense recently announced in an internal memo it’s pausing observances of certain holidays and cultural events, including Pride, due to Trump’s ban on federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
The bevy of bills singling out trans people has an impact on young adults, Spoonhunter added, in a state that already suffers from “brain drain.”
“I’ve talked with several trans youth who are like, ‘When I graduate, I’m moving, there’s no protection for me,’” they said. “‘There's nothing here for me. Now, this legislation has made it to where I’m the enemy. I’m their No. 1 target.’ In that presence, you're losing young people who can make a productive change in the state or in their communities.”
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
