A bill intended to prohibit high school athletes from competing on sports teams that conflict with their gender at birth won approval today in an Alabama House committee.

Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, calls his bill the Gender is Real Legislative (GIRL) Act. Pringle said the intent is to ensure that girls don’t have to compete against transgender athletes who have advantages of strength because of male anatomy and testosterone.

Opponents, including representatives of the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for people who identify as LGBTQ, said Pringle’s bill is not based on science and targets a non-existent problem. Several Democrats on the committee spoke out against the bill, saying it discriminated against children who are different than most of their peers.

The committee approved the bill on an 8-4 vote, with Republicans on the panel supporting it. That puts it in position for a vote by the House as early as next week.

Carmarion D. Anderson, Alabama state director of the Human Rights Campaign, said the bill was born out of prejudice and could cause more problems for children and their parents who already face difficult adjustments because of gender dysphoria. She said the Human Rights Campaign would continue to fight the bill, which she described as a political advertisement rather than an attempt to address a real problem. Pringle, the bill’s sponsor, is a candidate for Congress in Alabama’s 1st Congressional District.

“We’re going to be at the forefront to try to cancel this out because it’s unfair and we have to think about our future,” Anderson said. “And our future is not to box our youth in a category and perpetuate discrimination on them.”

Anderson’s said her job as the Human Rights Campaign state director involves advocating on all LGBTQ issues, but she said the bill hit close to home because she is a transgender woman who transitioned 25 years ago, when she was 16.

Pringle said his bill was not born out of prejudice and was not related to his campaign for Congress.

“It was born out of protection of the young ladies who compete in high school athletics, to make sure they can compete in a fair manner, that other athletes, that they’re equal, or they have an equal chance,” Pringle said. "These young ladies work very hard in order to condition themselves and to go out and compete, and I want to make sure that the person that’s competing against them does not have an unfair advantage based on the biological effects of testosterone in their system."

Pringle said he was not aware of any situations in Alabama where female high school athletes have been subject to unfair competition against transgender athletes, but he saw his bill as a preemptive move.

He mentioned a federal lawsuit filed by the families of girls who compete in high school track in Connecticut. They claim that a policy in that state of allowing transgender athletes has created unfair competition and hurt their chances for scholarships.

Becky Gerritson, executive director of the Eagle Forum of Alabama, a conservative advocacy group, testified in favor of Pringle’s bill today. She said it’s well established that males have advantages in athletics because of size and strength that females, as a general rule, cannot overcome with any amount of training.

“Please don’t erase the significance and accomplishments of women,” Gerritson said, urging the committee to vote for the bill. “Please protect women and help them go farther in sports.”

The committee had held a public hearing last week on the bill and heard from a half-dozen people opposed to the bill.

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