GOP education committee chair: ‘I don’t know what a trans girl is’

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) on Monday said she did not know what a transgender person was during a hearing on federal legislation to ban transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams. 

“I don’t know what a trans girl is,” Foxx said Monday during a House hearing on H.R. 734, a bill that seeks to amend the definition of sex in Title IX to mean a person’s “reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” 

The proposed law, otherwise known as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” is backed by 93 House Republicans. The White House on Monday said President Biden would veto the measure if it reached his desk. 

When asked during Monday’s hearing whether she believes transgender women are women, Foxx answered in the negative. 

“They’re males, sorry,” she said. 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Monday said Foxx was not denying the existence of transgender people but was instead “calling into question this fantasy that they could change their sex.” 

“Correct,” Foxx responded. “I do not deny the existence of people who say they are biologically one sex but identify as another, certainly there are people in this country who say that. My point was one cannot change one’s biological sex. It has not been found to be possible.” 

House Republicans during Monday’s hearing repeatedly referred to transgender women as “biological males,” a term condemned by LGBTQ advocacy organizations for its implication that transgender people are lying about their identity.

Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) repeatedly misgendered former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who last year became the first transgender athlete to win a national NCAA Division 1 title, and Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, two transgender former high school athletes at the center of a lawsuit filed by four cisgender female athletes in Connecticut. 

Democrats during Monday’s hearing pounced on Foxx’s and Republicans’ unwillingness to recognize transgender identities while debating legislation that would heavily impact their lives. 

“It’s ridiculous,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said. “You say you don’t even know what a trans woman or trans girl is, but yet you want to ban them from playing in sports.” 

Foxx in response said it shouldn’t matter whether she is able to define what it means to be transgender because the word “transgender” does not appear in the bill. 

“The word trans is nowhere in this bill,” Foxx said. “This bill says if you’re a biological male, you cannot participate against biological females. It’s as simple as that.” 

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), one of 13 openly LGBTQ members of Congress and a co-chair of the House Equality Caucus, said the bill, regardless of whether it mentions transgender people outright or not, would further stigmatize and isolate transgender student athletes from their peers. 

“Trans kids are in need of our protection, not of stigmatization, and despite these words not being in the text of the bill, the effect of this bill would be exactly that,” he said. 

At least 21 states since 2020 have adopted laws or policies that bar transgender athletes from competing on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity.  

The Biden administration earlier this month condemned blanket bans that “categorically” ban transgender athletes from sports but said individualized policies may be permitted under a set of proposed changes to Title IX.