Democrats block SAVE America Act amendment to bar transgender athletes in women’s sports

Senate Democrats voted Saturday to defeat a Republican-sponsored amendment to the SAVE America Act that would prohibit transgender athletes from participating in girls’ or women’s sports, an issue that Republicans plan to play up in this year’s midterm elections.

The Senate voted 49-41 along party lines to block the amendment sponsored by Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the Protection for Women and Girls in Sports Act. It needed 60 votes to pass.

The legislation would prohibit federally funded education programs from sponsoring or facilitating athletic programs that allow transgender women or girls to participate in sports according to their gender identity.

Tuberville said it marked the fourth time that Senate Democrats have defeated such an effort.

“This is the fourth time that I’ve had this bill on the floor,” Tuberville remarked. “I’ll continue to try until I’m gone.

“Every time that we’ve voted on this, I have not gone one single Democrat to vote for it,” he said.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act is a voting requirements bill that would require people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID when casting a ballot.

Banning transgender athletes in women’s sports is one of several provisions that President Trump has demanded be added to the SAVE America Act.

The president has also called for provisions banning no-excuse mail-in balloting and barring gender affirming surgery for minors.

Republicans offered the transgender athletes ban in response to high-profile, but rare, cases of transgender athletes dominating in women sports, such as Lia Thomas, the swimmer who swam on the men’s team at the University of Pennsylvania before crossing to the women’s team and winning a national championship in 500 freestyle.

No Democratic senator spoke on the floor in opposition to the amendment immediately before the vote.

Tuberville, who is running for governor in Alabama, argued on the floor that allowing transgender athletes who are naturally stronger and faster than many woman athletes is fundamentally unfair.

“How about the trophies and awards that are stolen from young girls and ladies that work all their life to win a game or a sport … and they lose to somebody that’s much more physical, bigger, stronger and faster?” Tuberville asked on the floor.

 Blackburn, who is running for governor in Tennessee, argued on the floor that allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports undermines Title IX, which was enacted in 1972 to ban sex-based discrimination federally funded education programs.

“Thank goodness President Donald Trump has tried to chase away some of the adverse actions against Title IX that were carried out during the Biden Administration … when women would be forced to share a locker room with guys because the guy decided he was going to claim to be a female so he could compete,” Blackburn said.

“The guy couldn’t win in the guys’ category so they claimed to be women so they could take away that trophy, so they can take away that scholarship from young women,” she said. “I think that’s disgusting.”

Senate Republican Policy Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a former Division 1 athlete, said the issue “hits home” for her.

“I played a college sport and so did my daughter. This issue hits home for me,” she said at a press conference at the Capitol.

“Let me be clear: This is about fairness, and it’s about preserving a level playing field for women and girls who have worked hard, trained hard, and deserve the chance to compete on equal terms,” she said. “Biological women competing alongside biological men is anything but fair.”

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