Source: Dr. Susan Berry
Arkansas became the third state in the nation Thursday to protect girls and women in sports from competing against males claiming to identify as females.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) signed a bill (SB 354) into law banning biological males from competing against females, regardless of gender identity.
In March 2020, Idaho became the first state to protect women’s sports when Gov. Brad Little (R) signed HB 500 into law, banning males from competing against females in K-12 schools, as well as colleges and universities.
Two weeks ago, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed SB 2536 into law to allow only women and girls to compete in female sports.
“I have studied the law and heard from hundreds of constituents on this issue,” Hutchinson said in a statement, adding:
I signed the law as a fan of women’s sports from basketball to soccer and including many others in which women compete successfully. This law simply says that female athletes should not have to compete in a sport against a student of the male sex when the sport is designed for women’s competition. As I have stated previously, I agree with the intention of this law. This will help promote and maintain fairness in women’s sporting events.
LGBTQ civil rights organization the Human Rights Campaign called the new law “cruel and harmful”:
According to the Associated Press, Holly Dickson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arkansas, said the new law is “a discriminatory and shameful attempt by politicians to stigmatize and exclude transgender teens.”
