Exit poll after exit poll found the economy was the driving issue for most voters last year. Whether it was the price of eggs or housing costs, Americans said they felt squeezed financially and wanted those elected to do something about it.
So what did the new House of Representatives do in one of its first acts? It passed legislation to put a stop to that great economic threat of transgender girls and women playing sports.
That’s right. Instead of trying to limit onerous fees for consumers, passing incentives to create more housing stock or taking aim at the disingenuous price hikes behind skyrocketing grocery bills, the first priority of the House was to police the bodies of girls and young women. Instead of trying to help the majority of Americans, House lawmakers focused their time and energies on the minuscule number of transgender girls and young women who play sports.
“We should be working … on the issues that improve the lives of the people we represent back home. Like increasing access to affordable health care and housing. Lowering costs for everyday Americans and fighting the climate crisis. But instead, here we are again,” Suzanne Bonamici, a Democratic representative from Oregon, said Tuesday before the House passed the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.”
“We’ve seen this time and time again,” Bonamici added. “Republicans fearmonger about the trans community to divert attention from the fact that they have no real solutions to help everyday Americans with the pressing problems they face.”
Oh! And as a bonus, the bill’s vague wording means it will actually put all women and girls in harm’s way. Who would enforce this legislation? And how? Because as it’s written, there’s nothing that would prevent a sexual predator from accusing a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl of being a boy and ordering her to take off her pants to prove him wrong.
These are not serious people we have hired to represent us, nor do they care about doing their jobs. Your rent is continuing to go up and you can’t afford a full tank of gas? Economic inequality has reached Gilded Age heights? We have a severe shortage of housing that is being made worse by storms and fires fueled by climate change?
House members don’t care! Nor are they interested in the actual threats to girls and women in sports, like abusive coaches and schools that continue to short-change them on funding and resources.
The only concern of the House members who rushed to pass this bill is “owning the libs.” Followed by making sure uninformed Americans don’t realize the transgender community is being demonized so lawmakers and their oligarch overlords aren’t held accountable when the cost of eggs doesn’t go down.
“House Republicans have a big vote planned for today. Now I wish I was talking about a bill that will lower costs for hardworking families or help more Americans buy a home. You know, the issues that so many people told us mattered most to them in the 2024 election,” Lori Trahan, the Democratic representative from Massachusetts who played Division-I volleyball at Georgetown, said on the House floor.
“Instead, in just their second week of power, House Republicans have chosen to vote on a federal takeover of sports, at all levels.”
NCAA president Charlie Baker said last month there are “less than 10” transgender athletes out of the 510,000 young men and women who compete in the NCAA. While there aren’t firm numbers for transgender participation in youth and high school sports, given that there are about 300,000 transgender youth in the country, it would be a few hundred boys and girls, at the very most.
Nor is there science to support the bans, with most studies used to claim transgender women have competitive advantages in sports based on the performances of cisgender men, which is not an appropriate comparison.
Yet Republican House members decided barring a few dozen transgender kids from playing sports was what was of upmost importance in this new Congressional session. The American people made it clear their financial well-being was their primary concern, but GOP lawmakers decided to prioritize virtue signaling instead.
Transgender athletes aren’t a threat to the economy. Lawmakers’ obsession with them is, because it’s keeping them from doing the work they were sent to Washington to do.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.