Fairness in Girls Sports Act gets third hearing

The Fairness in Girls Sports Act, sponsored by Sen. Bryant Richardson, R-Seaford, was heard Jan. 28 in committee, with supporters hoping the third time will be a charm.

“I’ll probably be here for another General Assembly, and therefore if it doesn’t go through this time, I’m sure there will be a fourth attempt,” said Richardson, who has put forth two similar bills. The first was  introduced in 2022, and the second was in 2024, but neither advanced out of committee.

Richardson’s latest attempt, Senate Bill 215, would do the same as the previous proposals, requiring a student-athlete to compete for athletic teams or in sports associated with their biological sex, as determined at or near birth and based on the student-athlete’s birth certificate or other government record if a birth certificate is unobtainable. An exception is permitted to allow female athletes to compete in male sports if a corresponding female sports team is not available. 

To facilitate this act, the bill states, a school district, charter school or Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association member school must designate a sponsored athletic team or sport based on the biological sex of students.

“I think opportunities for female sports are being lost,” Richardson said, citing playing time and scholarship chances. “Opportunities should be given to biological women.”

He said he fears sports would go the way of coed sports if the trend allowing biological males to play in women's sports continues.

The bill was heard with public comments, but it is unclear if the bill will receive support to clear committee.

Speaking in favor of the bill, Nancy Hogshead, a former Olympic swimmer, testified from the perspective of a competitive woman athlete.

“Today I’m speaking from the side of women,” she said.

Hogshead described the 1970s sports arena at the dawn of Title IX when women weren’t given scholarship opportunities that they have today, and the opportunities to train and compete were much different from today.

Sex segregation is needed in many instances to protect women, which includes sports, she said. 

“Our biological sex differences demand formal government-sanctioned, sex-segregated sport,” she said. “I know many of you want this situation to go away, but I’m telling you it’s not.” 

Hogshead recalled competing against East Germans in the 1980s, when the East German women took performance-enhancing drugs.

Still, she said, those drugs can’t compare to the advantage in size and muscle mass biological men have over women. When she trained with men, she said, they were 11% faster than women, and even Olympic champion Katie Ledecky swims 50 seconds slower than her male counterparts.

“Women are going to lose big-time if we don’t allow sex segregation in sports,” she said.

Former University of Pennsylvania trans swimmer Lia Thomas competed against and affected hundreds of women athletes, she said. Thomas regularly finished many lengths ahead of the competition and went on to win the NCAA women’s 500-yard freestyle championship. The women who placed second, third and fourth were Olympic medalists, said Paula Scanlon, a Penn swimmer at the time.

Scanlon testified that she and other women swimmers were told they were the problem when they voiced concerns over having to share a locker room and compete against a fully grown male, who had competed previously as a male on the Penn team and won Ivy League conference honors as a male. 

“We were told that him being on the team and in the locker room was nonnegotiable, and we were offered psychological services to educate us on why we should be comfortable undressing in front of a man,” she said.

Sen. Laura Sturgeon, D-Brandywine, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said she is not opposed to some of the concepts in the bill, but she asked what is the harm in grades K-5 or 6 playing on girls’ teams. 

“I would be a little more open – not promising anything – if the bill focused on older grades and creating fairness in scholarship opportunities,” she said.

Still, she said she can’t support the bill because it does not allow for the type of nuance associated with sexual identities.

“I’m willing to put myself out there as someone who is open to some of these arguments around fairness, but only if there is more nuance,” she said as the reason why she will not sign the bill to be released from committee.

Richardson complimented Sturgeon on running a fair hearing compared to the first one, which was combative, and said he would take some of her suggestions into consideration, but the bill needs to pass to protect women’s sports. He said he understands that there are mothers out there who have boys who want to play in girls’ sports, but there are physical differences that put males at an advantage.

Norma Eckert, parent of a transgender child, said her child and other transgender children are not the problem.

“This bill would require schools to police students’ bodies. This is invasive, inappropriate and deeply disturbing. It places educators in an impossible position, and teaches children that their bodies are subject to government inspection and suspicion,” she said.

Javonne Rich of the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware said the group is against the bill.

“This bill is an attack on transgender students. When misinformation about biology and gender is used to bar transgender youth from sports, it amounts to the same form of sex discrimination that has long been prohibited under Title IX, a law that protects all students, including trans people, on the basis of sex. We believe it also may violate the Delaware Constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment prohibiting sex discrimination,” Rich said.

Taylor Hawk of the Delaware State Education Association said they oppose the bill because they believe every student should be afforded equal opportunity, and guaranteed a safe and inclusive environment in the public school system.

Jennifer Cutny-Soper said she was a collegiate cross country runner, and she opposes the bill because it discriminates against trans youth.

“Not once was my athleticism threatened by the participation or existence of trans youth or athletes, nor are my kids,” she said. “The greatest gift of sport participation for me had nothing to do with any objective talent I possessed, which I did, but rather the morals and strength it instilled in me.”

Kathy Carpenter Brown said the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association Medical Committee found no incidents of girls being injured in Delaware by transgender athletes from  2021 to 2024, and if girls are uncomfortable with a locker room or bathroom setting, there is a safe refuge app that has been developed.

“This is not about fairness. You’re taking away opportunity for women. I can tell you that the women wrestlers, pound for pound, are better than male wrestlers because they process oxygen better,” Brown said.

Sturgeon said the complete testimony will be gathered before the bill is circulated for signatures to release it.