Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) could face economic backlash if she signs legislation prohibiting medical treatment and ban participation in sports for transgender youth, Alabama Advance Local Media reports.
The Republican governor is currently considering laws that would ban transgender youth from playing on sports teams and criminally prosecute doctors or others for prescribing hormone therapies and puberty blockers for people under the age of 19.
In the deep-red state, lawmakers have passed the restriction on sports participation HB391 — which Ivey is deciding whether to sign. The two medical bills on the table are HB1 or SB10. Advocates say the legislation is discriminatory toward transgender youth and the LGBTQ+ community.
If these bills become law, Alabama could face economic consequences, with some organizations saying they will pull their businesses out of the state.
The NCAA could decide not to host its college basketball tournaments in Birmingham, and the World Games, set in Birmingham in 2022, could also pull out of the deal, according to AL.com.
Officials say the bills would violate the NCAA policy that events must be in environments that are “safe, healthy and free of discrimination.”
“The NCAA will make good on its threat to pull all championships games scheduled in the next several years in any state that passes this bill into law,” said Morissa Ladinsky, a pediatrics physician and a co-leader of the gender health team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
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Some are confused about Ivey’s motivation to consider these bills, considering her re-election is in 2022.
“I don’t know what is going on with the governor right now with regard to what pressure she is facing on this,” state Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, the second LGBTQ lawmaker ever elected in the state House, told Local Media. “She’s in a very red state. She is a very conservative governor. I can’t see how there wouldn’t be pressure on her.”
“But I don’t feel like she has been pushed around. This is about doing the right thing in a lot of ways. I hope that is what we end up seeing,” Rafferty said.
President & CEO with the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau John Oros has expressed some concern over the NCAA pulling away past championship titles.
“We do quite a bit of business with the NCAA and we are concerned about that,” said Oros. “If this legislation becomes law, we’ll be curious and wondering and hopeful that the NCAA doesn’t pull these championships out of our city.”
Alabama’s proposed legislation is part of a slew of bills across the country that are targeting transgender youth’s participation in sports and ability to seek medical treatment.
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