U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has once again signed on to a Republican bill that would ban transgender students from competing on sports teams that don’t match their gender at birth.

Senate Democrats blocked the bill last year. But with Republicans controlling Congress and the White House, LGBTQ+ advocacy groups are preparing for a new fight in the battle over transgender rights. 

Johnson is among 28 Republican senators reintroducing the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” which would amend Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in K-12 schools and colleges receiving federal funds.

In a statement, Johnson’s office said the bill is a response to Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration taking “a sledgehammer to Title IX.”

Johnson’s office said the Republican bill, introduced Tuesday, would treat students’ gender as “recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics and birth.” The legislation would also ban schools that receive federal funding from having sports programs “that permit a male to participate in a women’s sporting event.”

That refers to the U.S. Department of Education updating Title IX rules in April 2024 to include gender identity and sexual presentation in the definition of sex-based discrimination. The revision did not include language relating to student athletics.

The Biden administration did propose a rule change that would have allowed schools to limit transgender students from participating in school sports, while making across-the-board bans on transgender athletes a violation of Title IX. The proposed rule was scrapped Dec. 20. 

Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment from WPR for this story.

Johnson and the 28 other Republican senators first introduced the bill in March 2023,  but Democrats who held a Senate majority at the time referred it to a committee where the bill died at the end of the 118th Congress.

LGBTQ+ advocates say targeting of trans students is about politics, not protecting girls

Abigail Swetz is the executive director at LGBTQ+ advocacy group Fair Wisconsin. She told WPR Johnson’s bill and the political attack ads focusing on trans students weren’t about protecting women, but rather scoring political points. 

“It’s politicians using a very small percentage of the population in a really gross game,” Swetz said. “And I just think that the idea of using someone’s desire to belong as a reason to force them to not belong is really dangerous.”

Brian Juchems is the senior director of policy and education at another GSAFE, another LGBTQ+ youth advocacy group. He said schools and the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association have already weighed in on the issue of transgender athletes.

“They’ve been dealing with this for years, and it seems like an example of Johnson wanting to have big government be very involved in local control issues,” Juchems said.

Political battle leads to litigation, school board divisions

For years, the issue of transgender kids and student athletes has become a political lightning rod. It was a major focus of Republican campaign advertisements in presidential and congressional races leading up to the November election.

During the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last summer, Johnson referred to transgender student athletes when he accused Democrats of pushing a “fringe agenda” he called a “clear and present danger to America.”

Since 2020, an ESPN review found 23 states have passed laws restricting transgender athletes from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity.

Last year, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a bill from Republican state lawmakers that would have banned students born biologically male from playing on K-12 female sports teams and accused Republicans of perpetuating “hateful and discriminatory rhetoric.” In response, Rep. Barb Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc, called it a “misogynist veto” and claimed Evers “once again stands AGAINST women.”

Biden’s Title IX changes were set to go into effect in August 2024, but a federal judge in Kansas issued an injunction, which applied to Kansas, Alaska and Wyoming, along with schools attended by members of conservative groups suing to block Biden’s revision.

Several Wisconsin school boards, including those in Kettle Moraine, Merton, Elmbrook, Menomonee Falls and Winneconne decided to delay adopting the federal Title IX changes or exclude gender identity language amid the federal injunction. GSAFE and Fair Wisconsin have filed at least five federal Title IX complaints against Wisconsin schools as a result.

The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents also suspended work on updating Title IX rules last year because of the federal injunction.