An Alaskan bill sponsored by four Republican representatives attempts to ban transgender student athletes from playing in competitive public school sports teams consistent with their gender, while giving cisgender students the power to be ‘compensated’ for being transphobic.

The proposed will let cisgender students sue schools that allows trans athletes to participate. It also gives schools the power to sue if their team competes with one that has trans athletes, and safeguards anti-trans policies by not allowing government entities to challenge the ban.

The act follows a common theme of erasure in these legislative attacks: it doesn’t use the word “transgender” even once, and perpetuates false narratives through its binary understanding of “biological sex.”

The arguments quoting ‘science’ to uphold differences based on “biological sex”, fall apart the more you dig into the details of how genes, gonads, and hormones keep sex subject to change: “The truth is, your biological sex isn’t carved in stone, but a living system with the potential for change,” Neurobiologist Dr. Simón(e) D Sun writes in the Scientific American.

Most lawmakers and sponsors behind anti-trans sports bans, don’t know of any trans athletes in their states, but use bio-essentialist, white supremicist-patriarchal ideas that mold non-trans women and girls into a category that needs ‘protection.’

Excluding trans athletes from participating in sports has negative outcomes for trans and non-trans youth through policing of gender by invasive procedures and tests that have been used against Black athletes like Caster Semenya.

Meanwhile, genetic differences that give cisgender white men like Micheal Phelps an advantage in his sport, are celebrated.

While international sports organizations like the International Olympic Committee have attempted to remove some anti-trans barriers in sports, 10 states have laws preventing trans youth from participating in sports.

HB 230 was read for the first time and referred to committee on January 18th, 2022.