Wisconsin lawmakers consider banning transgender athletes

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Female athletes urged Wisconsin lawmakers on Wednesday to ban transgender people from participating in girls’ and women’s sports, while opponents of the Republican-backed measures said they were discriminatory and chasing a problem that doesn’t exist.

A broad array of more than 30 groups opposed the measures that got their first public hearings before three legislative committees. Supporters, including female athletes and representatives from national groups pushing similar laws in other states, argued that the sanctity of girls’ and women’s sports was at stake.

“Where is the support for us?” asked Leia Schneeberger, a competitive mountain biker from Madison. Schneeberger testified that she lost two races in the past year to a transgender woman.

“I lost to someone who had the advantage of being born naturally bigger and stronger,” Schneeberger testified before the Assembly Education Committee. “I can’t train myself to be a biological man. … I’ve lost the desire to dream, to try and to compete. I don’t have to imagine how it feels.”

The bills wouldn’t have affected the races Schneeberger said she lost, as they would only apply to K-12 schools and college athletics. But Schneeberger and others said that transgender athletes could take scholarships away from other women.

More than 30 groups came out in opposition of the measures, including the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, which regulates high school sports, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the statewide teachers union, the ACLU, the State Bar of Wisconsin’s civil rights and liberties section, the LGBTQ advocacy group Fair Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault.