Tennessee Governor Signs Bill Penalizing Public Schools That Allow Transgender Athletes to Play Girls’ Sports

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) “quietly signed” a bill last Friday that will penalize public schools that allow transgender athletes to play girls’ sports, the Associated Press reported Monday.

Lee signed the bill “without comment” a little over a week after the Republican-led Tennessee State Senate passed the measure, SB1861, 26-5. The law directs the Tennessee Department of Education to “withhold a portion of the state education finance funds” if the public, middle, or high school “refuse[s] to determine a student’s gender, for purposes of participation in schools sports, by the student’s sex at the time of birth…,” according to bill’s text.