Texas Senate Passes Bill Barring Transgender Athletes from Competing Based on Gender Identity

The Texas Senate has passed Senate Bill 29, which would add a provision to the Texas Education Code prohibiting a student from competing in an interscholastic athletic competition that is designated for the biological sex opposite to the student’s biological sex.  Under the bill, schools will look to the student’s official birth certificate or other government record if the birth certificate is unobtainable.

A statement of a student’s biological sex on the student’s official birth certificate is considered to have correctly stated the student’s biological sex only if the statement was entered at or near the time of the student’s birth; or (2)  modified to correct a clerical error in the student’s biological sex.  The bill will require UIL to adopt rules to implement these provisions, subject to approval by the Commissioner of Education. 

The bill now heads to the Texas House. The law would take effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house.  If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act would take effect September 1, 2021.

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