GOP Rep. Riley Gaines criticizes Democrats for voting against the Women and Girls in Sports Act

House of Representatives of the US Congress passed his first bill 119th Congress on Tuesday, voting for the Women and Girls in Sports Protection Act.

All Republican representatives voted for the bill, but only two Democrats, Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and Vicente Gonzales, D-Texas, voted for its passage. The remaining 206 houses All Democrats voted against. Tail. Don Davis, DN.C., voted “present.”

After the bill passed, Republican members of Congress and women’s rights advocates condemned the Democrats who voted against it at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said it was “disgraceful” that only two Democrats voted to pass the bill.

“We had two Democrats join us, but that’s a shame, there should be many, many more. In fact, I would argue that every member of this body voted for common sense and the protection of women. But for some reason, because of politics, I guess they decided not to,” Johnson said.

“The American people sent a clear message in November, they want us to return to common sense, but some of our friends on the other side seem to be ignoring that plea.”

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Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, a prominent athlete’s rights advocate who is leading a lawsuit against the NCAA over its stance on allowing trans athletes to compete as women, also criticized the 206 Democrats who voted against the bill.

Gaines took aim at Democrats who opposed the new law on the grounds that it would result in testing young girls’ fitness for sports.

“We’ve heard about things like genital examinations, we’ve heard that girls will be asked to show what’s in their underwear, we’ve heard that they’ll have to show internal and external anatomy, inspections, Taliban enforcers, hiring predators to hit the enforcers and on and on, weird predator fear-mongering, but that’s what Democrats do best,” Gaines said.

Leader of the minority in the House of Representatives Hakeem JeffriesDN.Y., sent a post to Bluesky on Tuesday criticizing the bill, making baseless claims that the bill would “unleash horrific child predators on girls and young women.”

Jeffries’ office did not offer a detailed explanation of how the bill would do that. When asked for comment by Fox News Digital, a spokesperson just said“The post speaks for itself.”

Gaines also criticized those who said the bill was a “waste of time.”

“I heard this bill was a waste of time and let me tell you the message I got when I heard it was that I am a waste of time. Girls across the country, just like me, are a waste of time. Your daughters are a waste of time for all but two House Democrats.”

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who reintroduced the bill in the House after a failed attempt to pass it in 2023, pointed to Democrats’ track record of enabling and celebrating trans inclusion in women’s sports.

“Democrats have been trying to allow biologicals for years [men] to compete in women’s varsity activities in our country,” Steube said.

“It’s completely absurd that we actually have to pass a law that says only women can be in women’s sports!”

The Biden administration, along with other Democrats, has taken sweeping actions over the past four years to allow trans athletes in women’s and women’s sports.

On January 20, 2021, just hours after President Biden took office, he issued executive order on “Prevention and suppression of discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation”.

This order included a section that read: “Children should be able to learn without worrying about being denied access to the bathroom, locker room or school sports.”

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Biden issued a sweeping rule clarifying that Title IX’s ban on “sex” discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and “pregnancy or related conditions,” in April. The administration has insisted that the regulation does not deal with athletic eligibility. However, more experts presented evidence to Fox News Digital in June that it would ultimately put more biological men in women’s sports.

Democrats have proposed other federal legislation that would allow for greater inclusion of transgender people in women’s sports. It includes Law on Equalitywhich was proposed in 2019 and saw revisions that would “force public schools to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender on women’s sports teams.”

In March 2023, Democrats pushed for a transgender bill of rights, proposing resolution “recognizing that it is the duty of the federal government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights.” Resolution specifically called for federal legislation to ensure that biological males can “participate in sports on teams and in programs that best align with their gender identity; [and] they use school facilities that best match their gender identity.”

However, those views appear to have backfired in November’s election, as Trump and Republicans attacked Democratic opponents with TV ads about their support for trans inclusion.

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AND national exit poll by the legislative action committee of Concerned Women for America (CW) found that 70% of moderate voters see a problem with “Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men who play women’s and women’s sports and transgender boys and men who use girls’ and women’s sports.” . bathrooms” as important to them. And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was “very important”.

“This was an opportunity to turn over a new leaf, to put partisan politics behind us to finally put people before Washington politics. But unfortunately, what remains is an almost entirely partisan vote, with only two Democrats willing to affirm and protect the protections of Title IX,” lawmaker CWA strategist Macy Petty told Fox News Digital.

“This vote was not about some complicated political issue, but about a self-evident truth that civilization has recognized since creation. When abandoned, as we have witnessed, women and girls face devastating consequences that require moral clarity to correct. And that was more difficult and it is more difficult to come here in Washington.”

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