Tuberville claims without evidence there are entire teams of trans girls in women’s high school sports
U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Monday claimed there are entire teams of transgender girls participating in women’s high school sports, but did not provide any evidence to back up his assertion.
The Alabama Republican made the claim while championing his bill to ban to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports under Title IX during an appearance on the “Megyn Kelly Show.”
“It is a very, very touchy subject. Do you know, Meghan, that there’s some high school teams in this country – in blue states – are totally biological boys? It is a disgrace, it is a disgrace what’s going on,” Alabama’s senior senator told the podcast host.
“And what’s gonna happen is we are going to end up not having women’s sports because parents are not going to allow their kids to dress in dressing rooms, take showers with biological boys – or they don’t want to compete against them because of it being a safety factor. But it is devastating what is happening…”
Asked by Kelly to elaborate on sports where entire rosters are filled with trans girls, Tuberville responded, “Most of them are track teams. You’re going to have a few in volleyball, you’re going to have a few in basketball. But mostly the track teams, and they’re in blue states. We get calls all the time about this. Even the parents in the blue states are in an uproar about this, and it’s going to become a common thing if we don’t stop it now. You let this landslide keep going, we’re going to have huge problems getting this stopped. So it’s important we stop it now.”
When AL.com reached out to Tuberville’s office for sources indicating there are all-trans teams in women’s high school sports, a spokeswoman for the senator shared articles of trans girls who won track events but none were teams comprised only of trans girls.
“Sen. Tuberville was referring to the fact that he has heard stories from hundreds of women and girls who have lost trophies, scholarships, and opportunities to men,” said spokeswoman Mallory Jaspers. “Sen. Tuberville will never apologize for fighting for women and girls everywhere.”
It is not known exactly how many trans girls participate in women’s high school sports, but some experts estimate there are not more than 100 trans girl high school athletes across the country.
During the interview with Tuberville, Kelly shared a story about a friend of hers whose daughter attended a private school in New York state where the new athletic director was canned because he didn’t believe in allowing “boys in girls sports.
“The school made a conscious decision that not only did they want boys in the girls sports, but they had a plan to stack the entire girls’ ice hockey team with biological boys so that they could be totally dominant against other schools,” Kelly said.
She did not name the school.
“So, I do have some information in my own personal world that they’re doing this now for competitive advantages,” Kelly said.
Tuberville said his bill has the support of Republicans but will need Democratic votes to get over the 60-vote threshold to survive a filibuster.
Alabama’s senior senator said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-D.C. promised the bill would make it to the Senate floor.
“Now, it’s time to put up or shut up,” Tuberville said.
“We’ve got to get it on the floor so people can see. If it’s not going to pass, we’ll do it again. But we’ve got to get people on the record because this is something that is very dear to the hearts of all parents across this country, and it’s dead wrong.”