The Alaska State Senate tabled a bill Wednesday prohibiting transgender athletes from competing as the sex they identify with in youth sports, which faced strong resistance from Democrats.<\/p>\n
Senate Democrats submitted dozens of amendments to Senate Bill 140 from Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, in an effort to change the bill in various ways, citing issues with privacy and compliance with Title IX regulations.<\/p>\n
Floor debate on the bill began Tuesday evening after a full day of debate on the state’s budget bill, and the bill was taken up again Wednesday afternoon. Tuesday evening, Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, first submitted an amendment removing the bill entirely and simply stating that local school boards had the authority to set the policy for their districts.<\/p>\n
“People feel extremely passionate about this issue,” Wielechowski said Tuesday evening. “This is where this decision should be made. Local communities elect those members to the school board, we shouldn’t be micromanaging a local decision.”<\/p>\n
[Senate OKs budget that includes over $5k in payments to Alaskans<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n The vote on that amendment resulted in an even 10-10 vote in the Senate with two Republicans — Sens. Natasha von Imhof, Anchorage, and Bert Stedman, Sitka, — joining the eight Senate Democrats, but tie votes are not enough to pass an amendment.<\/p>\n Hughes said Tuesday a statewide policy was necessary because districts compete against each other, and the state should not have a “checkerboard” approach to regulation.<\/p>\n On Wednesdays, amendments addressed technical aspects of the bill such as children’s privacy and would have required the Department of Education and Early Development to conduct an annual study to see if sections of the bill increased suicide and self-harm among students. Speaking against the bill, Democrats cited a recent survey from the Trevor Project<\/a> — a national LGBTQ organization — which found that nearly 1 in 5 transgender and nonbinary youth attempted suicide and LGBTQ youth of color reported higher rates than their white peers.<\/p>\n