The Georgia state Senate Thursday passed legislation banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams in schools along mostly party lines, and the bill’s sponsor also suggested that the body will take action to ban puberty-blocking drugs.

“The recognition of female sport is important because without a boundary around female sport that excludes male advantage, males would dominate every major sporting competition,” said sponsor Cumming Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal.

“The purpose is to include females by excluding males,” he added. “That’s part and parcel to the mere existence of female sport.”

Senate Bill 1 passed 35-17, with Democratic Sens. Freddie Powell Sims of Dawson and Ed Harbison of Columbus joining their Republican colleagues in support.

Separately, House Speaker Jon Burns held a press conference Tuesday to unveil his chamber’s plan for a ban on transgender girls playing girls’ sports.

Before either bill can become law, it will need to pass both chambers by early April, and both Burns and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones will likely be jockeying to ensure their version is the one to experience the squiggle of Gov. Brian Kemp’s bill-signing pen.

Jones and Burns may have had a chance to hash out the differences on a recent trip. Both men were in Washington Wednesday as President Donald Trump signed an executive order that also seeks to ban transgender girls from playing girls’ sports.

All the attention has not been pleasant for many trans Georgians, who call recent sports bans and other legislative and executive actions a slap in the face.

“I was crying most of yesterday because I found out that the executive order was going to happen around 24 hours before it did, and then at that point I was like, oh my gosh, between that and SB1, basically everyone was trying to keep me from playing,” said Soju Hokari, a transgender Emory University student who plays ultimate, also known as ultimate Frisbee, for the school’s gender expansive and women’s team as well as for Atlanta Soul, a local semi-professional team.

Hokari said under Trump’s executive order and the proposed state law, she could continue to play for Atlanta Soul but not at Emory. The bill would apply to interscholastic teams of all grade levels and colleges, both public colleges and private colleges that compete against public schools.

She said ultimate leagues emphasize gender inclusivity across all levels. In 2020, USA Ultimate adopted a gender inclusion policy with three divisions, men’s, women’s and mixed, but recommends that all organizers allow players to compete in whichever division they feel most comfortable with.

Hokari said the bill oversteps decisions made by leagues, which are closer to the specific needs of athletes than the state or federal government.

“I personally think that all trans athletes should just be able to play, but the leagues all have these mechanisms in place to try to have a sport-specific way of ensuring fairness and inclusion in their sports, and the problem with the law is that it’s trying to supersede that by being like, ‘actually, we know better than these individual sports.’” Sen. Kim Jackson listens to arguments in the Senate over a ban on transgender sports ban. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Democrats called the bill a solution in search of a problem, arguing that transgender people make up less than 1% of the state’s population and an even smaller subset of transgender Georgians are student athletes.

Republicans often cite swimmer Riley Gaines, the namesake of the House bill, who became an icon for the movement against transgender participation in girls’ sports after she and other swimmers competed against and shared a locker room with a transgender woman at a 2022 championship held at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

The NCAA changed its eligibility rules after that competition following numerous complaints.

Stone Mountain Democratic Sen. Kim Jackson offered an amendment she said would have addressed issues that are more likely to prevent girls from playing sports than transgender competitors. The bill called for measures like equalizing pay for coaches and requiring equal access to fields and equipment for girls’ and boys’ teams.

In a floor debate, Democrats said the bill could lead to challenges over cisgender female athletes who may not look conventionally feminine, or that it could require transgender boys, who may appear masculine and have bigger muscles because of testosterone injections, to play on girls’ teams. Sen. Greg Dolezal, right, debates his transgender sports bill with Sen. Derek Mallow. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

“So then a trans boy will now compete in girls’ sports?” asked Savannah Democratic Rep. Derek Mallow.

“A trans girl – a trans boy – a female. Let’s take the trans thing off. Let’s speak to this in terms of biology, in terms of females,” Dolezal said. “Females will compete in female sport, and males will compete in male sport. I believe there are other bills that currently do address or will address the puberty blockers or even the injection of testosterone.”

“That’s not what the core of this bill discusses or contemplates,” he added. “I think we may see some downstream changes that might even change the reality or potential for what you’re talking about.”

Savannah Republican Sen. Ben Watson has filed a bill that would ban the use of puberty blockers or hormone therapy on minors.

Both versions of the transgender sports ban specify that people assigned male at birth cannot play on interscholastic teams for people assigned female at birth, but girls would be allowed to play on boys’ teams under some circumstances. They also specify that schools must maintain separate locker facilities for either gender and outline methods to complain for athletes who feel their rights have been infringed.

Frontline Policy, an influential evangelical conservative lobbying group , made an expanded transgender sports ban a top priority. Speaking after Burns’ press conference Tuesday, Frontline founder and president Cole Muzio said he’s neutral between the House and Senate bills.

“We just want girls protected in the state of Georgia, and I think the House has done a great job with this piece of legislation, very close to what we’ve advocated for,” he said. “The Senate, I know has been working hard on this, and I think there’s unity in this building between the governor’s office, the speaker of the House and the Senate. Good language is going to pass, so we’re excited to see what happens.”

Senior reporter Stanley Dunlap contributed to this report. Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.