The Texas Senate has voted out a bill that would effectively prevent steroid users from participating in high school athletics.
Senate Bill 2095, proposed by State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) would “provide UIL with the authority to make rules to address student steroid use outside of the existing testing scheme and authorize UIL to create a process for making determinations, which may result in ineligibility, related to safety and fair play.”
The bill is most specifically meant to address the issue of “transgender” athletes participating in the sports, while undergoing certain hormonal treatment such as testosterone.
Currently, athletes in Texas are only allowed to participate in sports that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate. As it stands, transgender high school athletes, who are receiving performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) related to an attempt to become a member of the opposite sex, compete against people still within their sex, while taking PEDs.
The bill gained traction in the wake of instances across the country where “transgender” athletes were competing against their counterparts, of the same or opposite sex, with unfair advantages, whether it be boys competing against girls, or girls competing against girls while taking testosterone.
Just this year in Texas, Mack Beggs, a female taking testosterone supplements as part of her hormone “therapy,” controversially defeated another female in the state wrestling championship at the 110 pound weight class.
The bill passed out of the Texas Senate by a vote of 21-9 with Democrat State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. of Brownsville joining a united Republican Caucus in support of the legislation. The bill is currently awaiting a hearing in the Texas House Committee on Public Education.
