Education subcommittee gives due‑pass to bill restricting transgender student participation in school athletics

ATLANTA — The House Education Subcommittee on Policy voted to give a due‑pass recommendation to House Bill 267, known in the hearing as the "Riley Gaines Act," advancing legislation that would limit participation in K‑12 and collegiate athletics and regulate single‑ and multiple‑occupancy changing areas and overnight accommodations based on an individual’s sex as recorded at or before birth.

The measure, presented to the committee by Chairman Bonner, the bill’s sponsor, instructs schools and athletic organizations to designate athletic spaces and to verify an individual’s sex for the purpose of athletic competition and certain changing facilities. The committee voted to advance the bill on a voice vote after about two hours of testimony from medical providers, education and civil‑rights advocates, clergy, students and representatives of religious organizations.

Supporters told the committee the bill is meant to protect female athletes and preserve what they called a level playing field. Opponents argued the bill would harm transgender students, invite invasive scrutiny of children, and introduce legal and administrative complications across state law.

"All we're attempting to do through this legislation ... is simply provide a level playing field for the girls in Georgia," Chairman Bonner, the bill’s author, said while describing provisions that would use a birth certificate or other verification to establish an individual’s sex for athletics and locker‑room access. Bonner also outlined a broad set of code revisions intended to replace references to the more general term "gender" with a definition of sex to be…