Stadthagen proposes bill challenging presidential executive order in ‘support of women’s rights in sports’

Rep. Scott Stadthagen last week filed a bill that, if passed, would seek to support women’s rights in interscholastic sports in Alabama.

“I believe it is important to protect the integrity of women’s athletics,” Stadthagen said. “Women’s rights are currently being trampled on. It is unfair for biological males to compete and beat females in high school sports. By allowing this intrusion into women’s sports, we will be setting back women’s rights by decades.”

The action is largely in response to President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation, which states in part, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the rest room, the locker room, or school sports.”

The bill would dictate that public kindergarten through 12th-grade schools will not participate in, sponsor or provide coaching staff for interscholastic athletic events at which the athletes are allowed to participate in competition against athletes who are of a different biological gender, unless the event specifically includes both biological genders.

“The families I speak to also see this as a safety issue,” Stadthagen added. “They do not want their daughters forced to share locker rooms with biological males. No one is standing up for the rights of these women. I believe this bill does just that.”

The bill, Stadthagen said, will come up for a vote next week in education policy.

Similar bills are being introduced in many other states, including Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota,

Tennessee, Texas and Utah. Mississippi earlier this month passed its own legislation, Senate Bill 2536.

Stadthagen was first elected in 2018 and represents portions of Cullman, Marshall and Morgan counties in House District 9.