Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) signed a bill into law on Thursday that banned so-called “transgender” athletes from competing in sports for women and girls, as reported by ABC News.
Hutchinson’s office released a statement addressing the new law, declaring that “this law simply says that female athletes should not have to compete in a sport against a student of the male sex when the sport is designed for women’s competition…I agree with the intention of this law. This will help promote and maintain fairness in women’s sporting events.”
The law addresses a rising trend of “transgender” athletes – individuals who simply believe themselves to be of the opposite gender that they actually are – competing in the opposite sex’s sports. In the case of men who believe they are women, this frequently leads to such men effortlessly outplaying the rest of the women due to inherent physical and biological advantages that men have over women when it comes to sports involving strength, speed, and endurance. Multiple states are considering similar legislation, although Arkansas is only the second state to pass such a law, the other being Idaho.
Alphonso David, president of the far-left Human Rights Campaign, released a statement claiming that the law represented “an affront not just to the transgender kids it is bound to hurt, but to all Arkansans who will be impacted by its consequences,” with no evidence to back up the latter statement. David also baselessly claimed that the law would cause “economic harm” to the state.
The law is set to go into effect this summer, and would allow for student athletes who suffer “direct or indirect harm” as a result of a transgender student’s participation to sue their school if the school does not uphold the new statewide ban.
Other legislation that has been passed by the Arkansas legislature and awaits Hutchinson’s signature include a bill allowing doctors to refuse to treat a “transgender” patient if they object for moral or religious reasons, as well as a bill banning gender reassignment surgery and other hormonal treatments for minors.