After midnight last night, in the waning minutes of the legislative session and while many Georgians slept, the Georgia legislature passed a bill establishing an oversight committee to determine whether or not transgender girls should be able to compete in school sports in Georgia. The legislature spent significant time and effort this session to address the mental health crisis in Georgia, yet took swift action that walks back this good by caving into political pressure from Governor Kemp to join him in his goal of bullying transgender youth.

This bill poses great harms to transgender students, and contains similar language to the law vetoed by Utah Governor Spencer Cox, whose veto statement holds true to this bill as well: “The bill was substantially changed in the final hours of the legislative session. There was no public input and this lack of time and input has serious legal and financial implications as well. I believe in process and this was a poor process.”

While a commission is marginally better than an outright ban, we must denounce the establishment of this oversight committee for what it is– a political attempt to score points on the backs of young people who just want to be left alone, and allowed to play sports with their friends. 

In the days to come, Georgia Equality will be working closely with our colleagues to determine the best course of action to protect transgender youth. While we know very little about the specific implications of the bill, we denounce wholeheartedly any attempt to bar trans athletes from competing as their true selves.