Georgia has become the latest state to prohibit the participation of trans-identified males in women’s sports, as President Donald Trump has made fairness for female athletes a key part of his agenda.
Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 1 into law on Monday. Kemp’s approval of the measure comes after the Republican-controlled state Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 35-17, while the Republican-controlled House supported it in a 100-64 vote.
Votes in both chambers fell largely along party lines, with most support coming from Republicans and all opposition coming from Democrats. Two Democrats in the Senate broke with their party to vote for the legislation, as did three House Democrats.
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Also known as the “Riley Gaines Act of 2025,” Senate Bill 1 declares that “Males shall not be allowed to participate in any interscholastic competition on any team that is designated as female” and “[f]emales shall not be allowed to participate in any interscholastic competition on any team that is designated as male.”
The measure contains a caveat allowing females to participate in “an interscholastic competition on a team that is designated as male if a corresponding team designated for females is not offered or available for interscholastic competitions.”
The provisions of the legislation apply to athletic competitions taking place at both the K-12 level as well as the collegiate level. The measure also requires public school districts, private schools that participate in interscholastic athletic competitions as well as colleges and universities to designate “multiple occupancy restrooms or changing areas and sleeping quarters” on the basis of sex.
“No covered entity shall operate or sponsor one or more teams in any interscholastic competition involving a local school system or public school that permits a male to use any multiple occupancy restroom or changing area or sleeping quarters designated for females in conjunction with such competition,” the legislation states.
The law adds: “No covered entity shall operate or sponsor one or more teams in any interscholastic competition involving a local school system or public school that permits a female to use any multiple occupancy restroom or changing area or sleeping quarters designated for males in conjunction with such competition.” It allows anyone who alleges a violation of any provision of the legislation to seek relief in court.
The religious freedom legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom praised Georgia leaders for enacting Senate Bill 1. “Letting men intrude on women and girls’ sports teams and gain access to their intimate spaces is an invasion of privacy, a threat to their safety, and a denial of the real biological differences between the sexes,” said ADF Legal Counsel Erica Steinmiller-Perdomo in a statement provided to The Christian Post.
“Georgia is right to ensure that female athletes of all ages have a fair and level playing field and protect the privacy, safety, and dignity of women and girls,” she added. “By signing this legislation into law, Gov. Kemp is protecting Georgians for generations to come.”
Georgia joins 27 other states in enacting legislation or a regulation prohibiting trans-identified male athletes from competing in women’s sports: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The push to prevent trans-identified males from competing in women’s sports stems from concerns about fairness for female athletes as well as real-world examples of trans-identified male athletes dominating women’s sports. The most notable example of this is Lia (Will) Thomas, a trans-identified male swimmer who broke women’s swimming records while competing on the women’s swimming team at the University of Pennsylvania after three years of competing on the men’s swimming team.
The Georgia bill is named after Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer who has become a vocal opponent of trans-identified male participation in women’s sports after having to compete against Thomas. Georgia is the first state to pass a law designed to preserve fairness for female athletes since Trump signed an executive order vowing to rescind federal funds from schools that allow trans-identified males to compete in women’s sports.
USA Powerlifting, which enacted a policy prohibiting trans-identified males from competing against women, lists advantages enjoyed by males that give them an innate advantage over females in athletics as “including but not limited to increased body and muscle mass, bone density, bone structure, and connective tissue.”
Meanwhile, the provisions of the bill requiring the designation of multi-occupancy restrooms, locker rooms and sleeping quarters by sex comes as the presence of trans-identified males in women’s locker rooms and sleeping quarters has led to discomfort among females forced to share spaces with them. In 2022, a group of female athletes at the University of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against the school over having to share a locker room with Thomas.
In the lawsuit, the student athletes described their experience as “definitely awkward because Lia still has male body parts and is attracted to women.” A school district in Colorado has faced a complaint after an 11-year-old girl was forced to share a bed with a trans-identified male classmate during an overnight school field trip.
Currently, 19 other states require trans-identified people to use bathrooms and sex-segregated spaces based on their sex instead of their chosen gender identity in some or all cases. Laws in Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia only apply to K-12 schools, while laws in Alabama, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio and West Virginia apply to K-12 schools as well as some government-owned buildings.
Laws in Florida, Montana, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming apply to all government-owned buildings.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
