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The Mississippi House of Representatives voted 82-28 on Wednesday to pass bill that will ban transgender athletes from competing on female sports teams in schools and universities. The bill previously passed in the state Senate with a vote of 34-9, and Gov. Tate Reeves has said he plans to sign it into law.
The Associated Student Body Senate urged the House not to pass the bill last month. At the time, ASB President Joshua Mannery said if the bill was passed, it would lead the university to be a part of a system that makes its students feel “unsafe and unwelcome.”
Illustration by Katherine Butler.
The Mississippi Senate voted to ban transgender athletes from competing on women’s sports teams in the state on Feb. 11 during a late-night session. If passed by the state House of Representatives, the ban would be established by Senate Bill 2536, which passed through the Senate with little discussion and only nine votes not in favor of it last week.
Now, UM’s Associated Student Body is urging the House to vote against the bill, and ASB president Joshua Mannery said he hopes other student governments in the state will do the same.
“To actively exclude transgender women from women’s sports, you’re cultivating this environment of hostility that will just continue to push violence and typecasting on that community,” Mannery said. “We don’t want to be a part of a system that actively makes our students feel unsafe and unwelcome.”