Gov. Ron DeSantis Signing Landmark Bill to Protect Women’s Sports

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis talks with fellow patrons before the opening ceremony of the Wal
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Hannah Knudsen

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is signing a bill aimed to protect women’s sports — a move that comes at a time the left pushes to allow biological males who say they are female to compete against — and with — biological girls.

“In Florida, girls are going to play girls’ sports and boys are going to play boys’ sports,” DeSantis said Tuesday to applause.

In April, the Florida legislature passed a measure preventing transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports at both the high school and college levels. DeSantis is signing the measure into law Tuesday during an event at Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Florida.

As Breitbart News reported at the time, “The state House had earlier approved the bill, but it did not advance in the Florida Senate. Ultimately, the ban was made part of a popular charter school bill and was passed by a vote of 23-16 in the Senate, reported the News Service of Florida.”

While far-left Democrats have falsely dismissed such measures as discriminatory — Florida State Sen. Victor Torres (D) described it as a bill that will “destroy the lives of those children and their futures” — the bill itself simply makes an individual’s “biological sex” on a birth certificate the prime factor in determining if an individual is eligible to play on a female sports team.

“It’s not meant to be hurtful. It’s not meant to be discriminating. It’s not meant to attack any group,” Florida Sen. Kelli Stargel (R) said, defending the measure, explaining it comes down to fairness and the fundamental physical advantages and physiological differences that biological males have compared to females.“This is not about that. This is about sports and having competitive advantage and having the ability to compete,” she said, adding that the measure is meant to aid women, giving them the opportunity “to participate, to get scholarships, to excel with other women of like strength and capability.”

DeSantis’s signing of this bill follows key action taken in recent weeks on a number of other agenda items, including Big Tech censorship and election integrity. The governor also signed an anti-riot measure and bill banning the use of vaccine passports in the Sunshine State in recent weeks.

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