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Senate passes bill restricting women’s collegiate teams to athletes’ sex assigned at birth
Summary
The Indiana Senate approved House Bill 10-41 on a 42-6 vote after several hours of debate. Supporters said the measure protects fairness in women’s sports; opponents said it increases risk of harassment and lacks safeguards against intrusive verification practices.
INDIANAPOLIS — On April 3, the Indiana Senate passed House Bill 10-41, a measure that requires state and private post‑secondary institutions to designate team sports by the sex a student was assigned at birth and bars participation on women’s teams by persons assigned male at birth. The bill passed on a 42-6 roll-call vote after more than two hours of floor debate.
The bill’s sponsor, Senator Donato, told colleagues the measure is meant to “protect the integrity of female sports” at the K‑12 and collegiate level and said schools will be required to adopt a grievance process for alleged violations. “With the passage of this bill this year, we will be protecting the integrity of female sports in Indiana at the collegiate level on a fair and equal playing field,” Donato said as she presented the bill.
Supporters across the Senate argued the law preserves opportunities and scholarships for cisgender women and maintains competitive equity. Senator Brown, a former college athlete, said the bill does not require invasive medical examinations and called the requirement a simple reliance on birth certificates. “Having a physical before you participate in a sport is a good thing and a safe thing,” Brown said.
Opponents said the bill offers no explicit protections against harassment, coerced medical disclosure, or intrusive verification. Senator Ford said the measure “isn’t about fairness” and warned it could subject women and transgender students to public accusations and career‑altering humiliation. “This bill puts our children at risk,” Ford said, adding that multiple federal, collegiate and state policies already address eligibility and competitive fairness.
Senators questioned how grievance and verification would work in practice. During questions, the sponsor and other senators acknowledged the bill leaves procedures to institutions and does not list specific medical documentation requirements. When asked whether the bill provided protections against invasive examinations or required parental consent for verification, sponsors said the grievance process would apply but that the bill does not specify what records an institution may request.
Senators cited national and state actions as context: speakers referenced NCAA policy direction and recent executive orders by the U.S. president and Indiana’s governor addressing women’s sports. Debate also included anecdotal testimony referenced by the sponsor about a student who said she was required to share a locker room and hotel room with a player she described as a biological male.
After the final debate, the Senate voted and the clerk recorded 42 ayes and 6 noes. The secretary will notify the House of the bill’s passage.
The bill now moves to the administrative steps listed under the Legislature’s process for communicating passage to the House.
