February 19, 2025
ATLANTA – Sex and school sports are among the first items on the agenda for the Georgia Senate this year, as lawmakers took up legislation Thursday to control participation in team competitions.
A Senate panel heard and passed Senate Bill 1, which would prohibit students from competing on teams that do not match the sex on their birth certificates.
These restrictions already exist at the high school level after the state empowered the Georgia High School Association to enforce restrictions in 2022. But SB 1 would write these rules into law in middle school and in high school — and extend them to higher education. It would also apply to private schools that compete against public schools.
The proposed law would “put a boundary around women’s sport that excludes those who have male advantage,” said Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the bill’s chief sponsor and the chairman of a special legislative committee that studied the issue late last year.
Public schools would face loss of state funding for failure to comply.
Democrats on the committee pushed back, saying lawmakers should be focusing on learning loss instead. The bill would empower parents to file complaints against athletes, and Sen. RaShaun Kemp, D-Atlanta, said girls misidentified as male could face taunting, with consequences for their mental health.
Several current and former women college swimmers spoke in support of the measure via Zoom. They complained about losing at a 2022 NCAA swim meet at Georgia Tech when Lia Thomas, who was born male, competed against women.
They also complained about having to share a locker room with Thomas.
“This was the pinnacle of our competing careers, but it wasn’t just about losing a trophy or a spot on the podium,” said Kaitlynn Wheeler, who was swimming for the University of Kentucky. “It was about our dignity.”
The vote to pass SB 1 out of the Senate Education and Youth Committee was 9-3, with Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson, the lone Democrat to join the Republican majority. It now heads to the full Senate.
