South Carolina's GOP governor signs transgender sports ban

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed the "Save Women's Sports Act" into law on Monday. The legislation requires student-athletes to compete on teams that correspond to the biological sex listed on their birth certificates, rather than gender identity.

Reuters reports that the bill "first cleared the state's House of Representatives last month after the Republican majority outlasted an estimated 1,000 amendments to the bill put forward by Democrats seeking to stall it."

The original version of the bill banned transgender girls and women from female sports teams at all public schools — from elementary school through college — and at private schools that compete against public schools. The state Senate amended the bill so that it also barred transgender boys and men from male sports teams "unless no team designated for females in that sport is offered."

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Since 2019, more than a dozen states have enacted restrictions on transgender student-athletes.

"The Save Women's Sports Act is now the law of the land in South Carolina. We have to do everything we can to protect the young men and women in our state who choose to pursue athletic competition, and that's why I proudly signed this bill into law yesterday," McMaster tweeted Tuesday. "It's common sense, boys should play boys sports and girls should play girls sports."

Ivy Hill, the community health program director of Campaign for Southern Equality, told Reuters the bill "needlessly stigmatizes young people who are simply trying to navigate their adolescence, make friends, and build skills."