Pennsylvania Democrats Stall Bill That Would Protect Women’s Sports

Democrats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives have delayed the Save Women’s Sports Act, legislation that would protect girls and women from transgender-identifying males competing in female sports in the Keystone State.

The legislation, Senate Bill 9, would prevent biological males from participating in girls or women’s sports at public schools or universities that are a part of the State System of Higher Education in Pennsylvania. The bill would require these public institutions to designate their sports by biologically defined categories of male and female (or coed). It also has a provision that would allow students to sue for injunctive relief if they suffer harm or lose an athletic opportunity because of a biological male in a designated female sports competition. 

The bill comes after the Trump administration successfully negotiated with the University of Pennsylvania to keep biological males out of female athletic categories there.

State Rep. Peter Schweyer, the Democrat chairman of the Pennsylvania House Education Committee, steered the effort to delay the floor vote. Republicans led by state Rep. Barb Gleim had gathered enough signatures on a discharge petition to have a House floor vote on the legislation, potentially by next week. That was until Schweyer moved to re-refer the legislation to the House Health Committee on Tuesday. 

The committee ultimately voted along party lines to re-refer the bill to the health panel, with 14 Democrat legislators in favor of the motion and 12 Republican state representatives against it. That vote ensures that the bill will sit without a full House floor vote for at least another 15 legislative days per the Pennsylvania state legislature’s rules. The state House currently has a Democrat majority of just one vote (102 to 101). 

Republican members of the state education committee did not hold back in their criticism of the Democrats’ stonewalling of the bill.

“So, with the de facto admission that there is no purpose beyond strategic manipulation of rules, my question is, how are any of you able to sleep at night?” state Rep. Stephenie Scialabba told Schweyer and the other members of the committee.

Republican state Rep. Joseph D’Orsie pointed out that referring the bill to another committee would delay a vote on the legislation.

“We’re delaying justice for girls. We’re prioritizing the delusions of some over the privacy, safety, and welfare of millions of girls in the Commonwealth,” D’Orsie lamented.

“These are daughters like my 7-year-old girl, granddaughters, nieces and friends, girls who deserve safe and equal fields and courts. A vote to re-refer and further delay the consideration of SB9 is a vote against women and girls,” he said. 

“Why can we not debate this openly, with an up-or-down vote, when 80% of the American public support sports being limited to the biological gender?” Republican state Rep. Marc Anderson asked the assembled committee.

“We just got done with July 4. Never, ever, ever did the Founding Fathers use political maneuvers to silence debate,” Anderson said. 

Republican state Rep. Brian Rasel apologized to his family for the state chamber’s failure to protect female sports. 

“I oppose re-referring this bill, and I want to apologize to my daughters, Reagan and Remi, that we don’t have adults, adult enough to take a simple vote to protect you,” Rasel said.

The bill had already passed the state Senate in early May, where five Democrat senators had crossed party lines to vote in favor of it with all 27 Republican senators. The 18 votes in opposition to the legislation came from state Senate Democrats. That means if it passes the state House, it will go to the desk of Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, where it is unclear what he will do. 

Schweyer and Shapiro did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication of this piece.

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