No Democratic governor has ever signed a bill banning biological males in female sports, but advocates for single-sex athletics are hoping to break the blue-state barrier this year, starting in New Mexico.
Activists on both sides of the transgender-athlete issue will descend Thursday on Santa Fe for a committee hearing on H.R. 185, the Protection of Women’s Sports Act, which would prohibit “male participation” in girls’ and women’s competitions.
“We have worked too hard and come too far with protections like Title IX to give up on a future for protected female-only spaces,” said Republican state Rep. Andrea Reeb, the bill’s sponsor. “I hope to see bipartisan support for our talented New Mexico female athletes during this 60-day session.”
President Trump signed an executive order last week banning biological males in girls’ and women’s sports, but advocates for female athletes said state legislation is still vital, noting that the order can be undone in four years by the next president.
“The executive order was very well done. That being said, it’s an executive order,” said Jordanne Kemper, state affairs director for the right-of-center Independent Women’s Forum. “It’s not codification of law. Every state still has a responsibility to ensure protections for women’s sports.”
New Mexico has shown no interest in passing a women’s sports bill – Democrats killed a similar measure in 2021 – but the latest polling shows that the Democrat-controlled legislature may be out of step with the public.
A state poll of registered voters shared with The Washington Times found that 94% agree there are “important reasons” to have sex-separate locker rooms; 84% agree there are “important reasons” to separate sports by sex; and 84% believe “sex” is a biological term referring to male and female.
What’s more, Democratic voters were nearly as supportive as Republicans.
Nearly 80% of Democrats agreed with separating sports by sex, with only 5.5% saying they strongly disagreed, according to the survey conducted Dec. 18-30 by Wick Insights for the Independent Women’s Forum.
The poll also found that 70% of voters surveyed would be more likely to support a lawmaker who voted to “protect women’s-only sports as a distinct category for females.”
“The polling is overwhelming that Democrats in the state are for keeping girls and women’s sports female-only,” said Kim Russell, an IWF ambassador and former Oberlin College women’s lacrosse coach who plans to speak at Thursday’s hearing.
Also scheduled to testify is Payton McNabb, the former North Carolina high school volleyball player who was knocked unconscious by a ball spiked by a biological male in 2022. She still struggles with health issues from the hit, which left her with a concussion, whiplash, and a brain bleed.
“The safety issue is really, really a huge deal, and I think that maybe people don’t know it’s happening,” Ms. McNabb said. “It happened to one person [in my case], but it affected my whole team, my whole family, my community.”
Preparing to play defense is Equality New Mexico.
The LGBTQ group’s top priorities for the 2025 legislative session include defeating H.R. 185, or what opponents have dubbed the “Anti-Trans Athletes Bill.”
“Our governor, our legislators, and our attorney general have all signaled their unwavering support for trans and nonbinary residents,” said a Saturday op-ed by Equality New Mexico and the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico in the Santa Fe New Mexican.
“State leaders have reaffirmed that New Mexico will not yield to federal overreach when it comes to the rights and dignity of our people,” the column stated.
Certainly, the bill’s supporters enter the roundhouse as underdogs.
Women’s sports bills have been introduced in every state, but Democratic-led legislatures like New Mexico’s have a perfect track record in defeating them.
Since 2020, 27 states have approved laws or regulations barring biological males in female scholastic sports. In four of those states — Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina – Democratic governors vetoed or refused to sign the bills, though they all ultimately became law without their signatures.
So far there’s little indication that the party plans to reverse course.
Only two congressional Democrats joined Republicans in passing last month the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. The proposal is now expected to die in the Senate, where the Republicans’ 53-47 majority is not great enough to overcome a filibuster without significant Democratic defections.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, blasted the NCAA after it changed its policy last week to prohibit male-to-female transgender athletes in women’s sports.
“This is intended to stoke fear and intimidation in America, but I’m working to make sure that New Mexico doesn’t get caught up in the chaos and division that orders like these intend to create,” Ms. Lujan Grisham told the Albuquerque Journal.
Eventually, however, advocates for single-sex sports believe that Democrats will give up the resistance. That could start this year in New Mexico.
“I think after the presidential election, everyone is more aware,” Ms. Russell said. “I think that the Democratic representatives in New Mexico need to be aware of how their constituents feel, and that this is a big deal for them.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.