U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana speaks at a press conference Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, after the U.S. House passed a bill that would prohibit transgender students from competing on women’s school sports teams consistent with their gender identity. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
Oregon’s sole Republican in Congress, Rep. Cliff Bentz, who represents the 2nd District, voted in favor of H.R. 28, which would amend Title IX and ban trans athletes from participating in women’s sports. But its five Democratic members, Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Janelle Bynum and Maxine Dexter, voted against the bill.
Dexter, who represents the Portland-based 3rd District, and Bynum, who represents the 5th, which crosses the Cascades south of Portland and includes all or part of Clackamas, Deschutes, Jefferson, Linn, Marion and Multnomah counties, also released statements against the bill.
Dexter said it would not protect women and that she would fight attacks against the transgender community.
“As a working-class kid who grew up playing sports, the mother of two college athletes, and a physician, I understand how important sports are to our kids’ development. No child in this country should be denied the opportunity to play a sport, including our transgender children,” she said in a statement.
Bynum expressed a similar sentiment:
“As a sports mom and as a former state legislator, my focus is and always has been ensuring sports are a place for kids to have fun and compete fairly. I’ve written laws in Oregon to that end and I’ll have real conversations with anyone on fairness in sports, but that is not the focus of today’s bill. Instead, this bill goes too far, allowing kids as young as four years old to be subjected to genital examinations and allowing parents and lawmakers to bully our student athletes. It gives a green light to bullies and perverts. No thanks,” Bynum said.
WASHINGTON — A measure that would bar transgender students from participating on women’s school sports teams consistent with their gender identity passed the U.S. House on Tuesday.
The legislation — which advanced 218-206 — came as an increasing number of states have passed laws banning trans athletes from participating in sports in K-12 schools and colleges that align with their gender identity and amid a wider GOP-led push to enact anti-trans legislation.
President-elect Donald Trump, set to be sworn in Jan. 20, repeatedly pledged on the campaign trail that he would ban transgender youth from participating in school sports that align with their gender identity.
Almost all U.S. House Democrats opposed the measure, but two Texans — U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez — voted for it. North Carolina Democratic Rep. Don Davis voted “present.”
Florida GOP Rep. Greg Steube introduced the legislation, a version of which passed the House in the previous session of Congress but had no chance of success back when Democrats controlled the Senate.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said “this is a great day for women in America” during a press conference following the vote.
The Louisiana Republican said the “House voted to uphold common sense again.”
Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer at the University of Kentucky who was at the press conference, said that with the House’s passage, “we are one step closer as a nation to making sure that not one more male athlete is able to take a trophy, a roster spot, playing time, resources or an opportunity to compete, from a woman.”
Gaines is a leading voice in opposing transgender athletes’ participation in sports that align with their gender identity.
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, noted that there has been “considerable disinformation and misinformation about what the inclusion of transgender youth in sports entails” and that trans students’ sports participation “has been a non-issue.”
The measure would amend Title IX so that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
The bill does not specify how exactly the ban would be enforced — a point House Democrats in opposition to the measure were quick to point out.
Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law that bars schools that receive federal funding from practicing sex-based discrimination.
In April 2024, the Biden administration released updated regulations to Title IX, part of which sought to bolster federal protections for LGBTQ+ students.
But last week, a federal judge in Kentucky scrapped the administration’s final rule nationwide — ending enforcement of the updated regulations that had drawn strong GOP opposition and a slew of legal challenges and created a policy patchwork across the country.
With Republicans now leading both chambers of Congress and Trump’s imminent return to the White House, the GOP stands in a more robust position to enact such a ban.
Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville reintroduced a similar measure in the U.S. Senate last week. That effort, which already has the support of 35 Senate Republicans, would likely need the backing of at least 60 senators to advance past the filibuster.
There are 45 Democratic senators in Congress, though independent Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont caucus with the Democrats.
The U.S. Department of Education did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment Tuesday on the House bill.
The measure drew strong opposition from House Democrats, who spoke during the floor debate in front of a backdrop that read: “The GOP Child Predator Empowerment Act.”
The bill is titled by Republicans as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025.”
U.S. Rep Suzanne Bonamici, part of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce, fiercely opposed the measure, which she said would “empower child predators — putting students across the country at increased risk.”
Bonamici voiced concerns over privacy violations and harassment regarding how the bill would be enforced.
“This is a ‘one size fits all’ bill that would apply equally to every sport, from K-12 schools to colleges,” the Oregon Democrat said during floor debate.
Meanwhile, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, along with more than 400 civil rights groups, called on members of Congress to reject the measure Monday, writing in a letter that “this discriminatory proposal seeks to exclude transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people from athletics programs in schools.”
“Instead of providing for equal facilities, equipment, and travel, or any other strategy that women athletes have been pushing for for decades, the bill cynically veils an attack on transgender people as a question of athletics policy,” the groups wrote.
Last updated 2:54 p.m., Jan. 14, 2025
by Shauneen Miranda, Oregon Capital Chronicle
January 14, 2025
by Shauneen Miranda, Oregon Capital Chronicle
January 14, 2025
Oregon’s sole Republican in Congress, Rep. Cliff Bentz, who represents the 2nd District, voted in favor of H.R. 28, which would amend Title IX and ban trans athletes from participating in women’s sports. But its five Democratic members, Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Janelle Bynum and Maxine Dexter, voted against the bill.
Dexter, who represents the Portland-based 3rd District, and Bynum, who represents the 5th, which crosses the Cascades south of Portland and includes all or part of Clackamas, Deschutes, Jefferson, Linn, Marion and Multnomah counties, also released statements against the bill.
Dexter said it would not protect women and that she would fight attacks against the transgender community.
“As a working-class kid who grew up playing sports, the mother of two college athletes, and a physician, I understand how important sports are to our kids’ development. No child in this country should be denied the opportunity to play a sport, including our transgender children,” she said in a statement.
Bynum expressed a similar sentiment:
“As a sports mom and as a former state legislator, my focus is and always has been ensuring sports are a place for kids to have fun and compete fairly. I’ve written laws in Oregon to that end and I’ll have real conversations with anyone on fairness in sports, but that is not the focus of today’s bill. Instead, this bill goes too far, allowing kids as young as four years old to be subjected to genital examinations and allowing parents and lawmakers to bully our student athletes. It gives a green light to bullies and perverts. No thanks,” Bynum said.
WASHINGTON — A measure that would bar transgender students from participating on women’s school sports teams consistent with their gender identity passed the U.S. House on Tuesday.
The legislation — which advanced 218-206 — came as an increasing number of states have passed laws banning trans athletes from participating in sports in K-12 schools and colleges that align with their gender identity and amid a wider GOP-led push to enact anti-trans legislation.
President-elect Donald Trump, set to be sworn in Jan. 20, repeatedly pledged on the campaign trail that he would ban transgender youth from participating in school sports that align with their gender identity.
Almost all U.S. House Democrats opposed the measure, but two Texans — U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez — voted for it. North Carolina Democratic Rep. Don Davis voted “present.”
Florida GOP Rep. Greg Steube introduced the legislation, a version of which passed the House in the previous session of Congress but had no chance of success back when Democrats controlled the Senate.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said “this is a great day for women in America” during a press conference following the vote.
The Louisiana Republican said the “House voted to uphold common sense again.”
Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer at the University of Kentucky who was at the press conference, said that with the House’s passage, “we are one step closer as a nation to making sure that not one more male athlete is able to take a trophy, a roster spot, playing time, resources or an opportunity to compete, from a woman.”
Gaines is a leading voice in opposing transgender athletes’ participation in sports that align with their gender identity.
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, noted that there has been “considerable disinformation and misinformation about what the inclusion of transgender youth in sports entails” and that trans students’ sports participation “has been a non-issue.”
The measure would amend Title IX so that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
The bill does not specify how exactly the ban would be enforced — a point House Democrats in opposition to the measure were quick to point out.
Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law that bars schools that receive federal funding from practicing sex-based discrimination.
In April 2024, the Biden administration released updated regulations to Title IX, part of which sought to bolster federal protections for LGBTQ+ students.
But last week, a federal judge in Kentucky scrapped the administration’s final rule nationwide — ending enforcement of the updated regulations that had drawn strong GOP opposition and a slew of legal challenges and created a policy patchwork across the country.
With Republicans now leading both chambers of Congress and Trump’s imminent return to the White House, the GOP stands in a more robust position to enact such a ban.
Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville reintroduced a similar measure in the U.S. Senate last week. That effort, which already has the support of 35 Senate Republicans, would likely need the backing of at least 60 senators to advance past the filibuster.
There are 45 Democratic senators in Congress, though independent Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont caucus with the Democrats.
The U.S. Department of Education did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment Tuesday on the House bill.
The measure drew strong opposition from House Democrats, who spoke during the floor debate in front of a backdrop that read: “The GOP Child Predator Empowerment Act.”
The bill is titled by Republicans as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025.”
U.S. Rep Suzanne Bonamici, part of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce, fiercely opposed the measure, which she said would “empower child predators — putting students across the country at increased risk.”
Bonamici voiced concerns over privacy violations and harassment regarding how the bill would be enforced.
“This is a ‘one size fits all’ bill that would apply equally to every sport, from K-12 schools to colleges,” the Oregon Democrat said during floor debate.
Meanwhile, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, along with more than 400 civil rights groups, called on members of Congress to reject the measure Monday, writing in a letter that “this discriminatory proposal seeks to exclude transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people from athletics programs in schools.”
“Instead of providing for equal facilities, equipment, and travel, or any other strategy that women athletes have been pushing for for decades, the bill cynically veils an attack on transgender people as a question of athletics policy,” the groups wrote.
Last updated 2:54 p.m., Jan. 14, 2025
Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.
Shauneen Miranda is a reporter for States Newsroom’s Washington bureau. An alumna of the University of Maryland, she previously covered breaking news for Axios.
Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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Oregon Capital Chronicle focuses on deep and useful reporting on Oregon state government, politics and policy. We help readers understand how those in government are using their power, what’s happening to taxpayer dollars, and how citizens can stake a bigger role in big decisions.
We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. (See full republishing guidelines.)
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