Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — Senate Bill 9 (SB9), the Save Women’s Sports Act, which aims to restrict transgender female athlete participation in Pennsylvania schools, has been stalled once again in a House Health Committee (HHC) Hearing. The HHC Committee voted today, along party lines (14 Democrats to 12 Republicans), to re-refer the bill to the House Judiciary Committee.
The bill passed the state Senate last May with a 32-18 vote with some support from Democrat state senators, including: Sen. James Malone (Lancaster County) and Sen. Marty Flynn (Lackawanna and Luzerne); Senators Lisa Boscola and Nick Miller (both Lehigh and Northampton); and Sen. Christine Tartaglione (Philadelphia).
At this time, 27 states have transgender female athlete bans and an estimated 80% of Americans support a ban.
Chairing the House Health Committee is Democrat Rep. Dan Frankel; while the Republican (Minority) Chair is Rep. Kathy Rapp. Rapp’s remarks chronicled the excessively stalled history of the bill, and joked that the committee should refer it to the “Tourism Committee” because it’s just going “round and round.” Majority Chair Frankel said the Democrats’ “focus” is elsewhere; and deflected from Republican committee members facts that girls have been physically injured and in some instances sexually violated because of biological boys in girls spaces in sports.
SB9 now goes to the House Judiciary Committee for a second time.
Harrisburg100 