Trans sports ban fails in U.S. Senate

In a welcome win amidst Trump’s anti-trans onslaught, a national ban on trans women and girls from women’s sports died on the Senate floor this week

This week, the United States Senate voted on a bill that would ban trans youth from participating in sports. 

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, led by Republican Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville, previously passed the Republican-led House back in January. But it failed to receive the 60 votes required to pass in the Senate on Monday. 

The vote was split exactly on party lines, 51-45. Democratic senators Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Peter Welch of Vermont, as well as Republicans Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, abstained. 

LGBTQ2S+ advocates are praising the bill’s failure as a much-needed win amidst an endless onslaught of hateful policy from Trump’s administration. 

And as senior editor Mel Woods explains, the failure of this bill is also a good reminder that many of the executive orders put forward by Trump still require actual legislation to be enforced.

Senior editor Mel Woods is an English-speaking Vancouver-based writer, editor and audio producer and a former associate editor with HuffPost Canada. A proud prairie queer and ranch dressing expert, their work has also appeared in Vice, Slate, the Tyee, the CBC, the Globe and Mail and the Walrus.

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