

The law signed by Gov. Kay Ivey late last month barring trans public school athletes from competing on teams under the gender they identify with may affect as little as zero Alabama youth.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association, the governing body of more than 700 high school’s and junior high school’s athletic programs in the state, said it is not aware of any trans athletes participating in public school sports, citing medical privacy laws.
The legislation also appears to be redundant, as the AHSAA handbook specifies that students can only participate in interscholastic sports “as the gender identified on [their] certified birth certificate.”
Critics of the law say it is a form of discrimination and that it may harm Alabama economically if organizations like the NCAA or businesses believe the new law do not conform with their values.
The Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for LGBTQ rights, said the law is “designed to discriminate against an already vulnerable population.
“By signing this legislation, Gov. Ivey is forcefully excluding transgender children. Let’s be clear here: transgender children are children. They deserve the same opportunity to learn valuable skills of teamwork, sportsmanship, and healthy competition with their peers.” said Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David in a statement. “Simply put, Alabamans deserve better than lawmakers who legislate against the health and safety of all kids for cheap political gain.”
Rep. Scott Stadthagen, a Republican from Hartselle, sponsored the bill in the House. Stadthagen said the purpose is to protect the integrity of girls’ sports.
“It is unfair for biological males to compete against females, in high school sports,” he said.
Alabama is among four states — Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas — that had a public school trans athlete ban signed into law in 2021.
Another 27 states have at least considered similar bills, according to the ACLU.
The flurry of bills were modeled after a bill that passed the Idaho Legislature in 2020 — a law that is being challenged in federal court by the ACLU.
“So many of these states have actually used the actual language from my bill. That is gratifying to know that we had really paved a path forward,” Idaho state Rep. Barbara Ehardt, a Republican who sponsored the Idaho bill, told the Idaho State Journal late last month.