(The Center Square) – A Republican lawmaker filed legislation on Tuesday that would reclassify school sports into five groupings as an ideological fight plays out across the state over transgender participation in athletics.
Sen. Phil Fortunato, R-Auburn, filed Senate Bill 5012 on Tuesday ahead of the 2025 legislative session next month. While his last effort failed in 2023, he said this approach is another “logical” and “common sense solution” to protect female athletes and keep student athletics fair.
If approved, the bill would split participation into five groups based on chromosomal makeup and self-identified gender, allow schools to determine eligibility based on medical records, and allow students and districts to sue for injunctive relief up to two years after any alleged harm.
“This bill addressing that issue is not radical,” Fortunato told The Center Square. “It’s kind of a common sense solution to a perceived problem that was created by this radical agenda.”
Fortunato’s proposal follows several school districts across the state adopting resolutions that call on the Legislature to limit participation based on a student’s biological sex. Some asked the state to create new classes, as this bill endeavors to do, to keep a level playing field.
Proponents of the resolutions say transgender participation undermines female sports as biological males inherently have the upper hand. Meanwhile, opponents paint the measures as marginalizing transgender and nonbinary students, robbing them of a sense of belonging.
The most significant piece of SB 5012 would split participation into five groups: one for students with the same sex chromosomes, XX, who identify as female; one for those with the same chromosomes, XX, who identify as male; another two groups for students with different kinds of chromosomes, XY, who identify as a male or female, with the last for those who don’t fit into any category.
However, Fortunato doesn’t think the bill would lead to anyone participating in the new groups; he said it will just push transgender and nonbinary students to participate with their biological sex.
“I don’t understand what’s unfair about this,” Fortunato said. “What’s radical is men competing in girls’ sports.”
While the bill, if passed, would direct the entire state to adopt the new groupings, altering the historic landscape of school sports, Fortunato doesn’t think there will be any financial impact.
“I don’t see why that would be, other than you would have to have two extra trophies,” he said.
When Fortunato pushed the legislation in 2023, it never went before a committee for a hearing, the first step toward passing any bill. The committee chair controls what measures get a hearing, meaning a Democrat leader could sideline Republican proposals altogether.
He’s hoping that since districts across the state are now adopting resolutions calling for just this, Democrats will be more willing to give it a hearing this time. Fortunato doesn’t expect it to pass or receive much, if any at all, bipartisan support; it’s about sending a message from his constituency.
“That’s what puts the pressure on,” he said.
The rules would not apply to student athletics for grades K-6, if approved.
