On Thursday, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves took to social media to express his discontent over President Joe Biden’s actions to force young girls like his own to compete with biological males for access to athletics.
“I don’t understand why politicians are pushing children into transgenderism in the first place. I certainly don’t understand why the President chose to make it a priority,” Reeves said in a Twitter thread.
The Governor said, in whole:
“If there’s one thing that we are passionate about in the Reeves family, it’s my daughters’ sports. I know that the lessons learned through team sports have led to so many successful lives and careers for women and have truly helped provide a more equal opportunity for success.
“My girls practice tirelessly. They work hard. They’ve learned how to win and, yes, they’ve learned what it feels like to be on the wrong end of the final score. It’s true bonding—my happiest and proudest Dad moments.
“It is also why I am so disappointed over President Biden’s actions to force young girls like them to compete with biological males for access to athletics. It will limit opportunity for so many competitors like my daughters. It is bad policy and it is wrong for America.
“I don’t understand why politicians are pushing children into transgenderism in the first place. I certainly don’t understand why the President chose to make it a priority. And my heart breaks for the young women across America who will lose in this radical social experiment.”
Here in Mississippi, State Senator Angela Hill has filed the “Mississippi Fairness Act” – SB 2536 – to require any public school, public institution of higher learning, or an institution of higher learning that is a member of the NCAA, NAIA, MHSAA or NJCCA to designate its athletic or sports teams according to biological sex. Her bill passed out of committee and awaits possible consideration on the floor of the Mississippi Senate. However, that is not assured.
Hill joined Y’all Politics on Thursday to speak on her bill. She encouraged concerned Mississippians to contact Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann’s office and their state lawmakers to support the legislation.
The Human Rights Campaign and the Mississippi ACLU are actively lobbying against Hill’s legislation, saying the bill is “blatantly discriminatory and must be defeated.”
A call to action by the Human Rights Campaign encourages citizens to oppose the bill by sending legislators a form letter that reads, in part:
As a Mississippi resident, I am writing today to ask that you stop SB 2536 which targets LGBTQ people in our state. With Mississippi facing an economic shortfall and working to recover from the impact of COVID-19, this bill will not only subject LGBTQ Mississippians to further discrimination, but will also ultimately have a significant impact on the state’s economic recovery.
SB 2356 is an extremely invasive bill that would ban transgender women and girls from participating in sports. This measure is unnecessary, discriminatory, and impossible to enforce. Moreover, this bill proposes a solution to a problem that simply does not exist in Mississippi.
This is blatantly discriminatory and I believe discrimination is not a value of Mississippi. Plus, any efforts to pass anti-LGBTQ legislation will only cost the state of Mississippi its reputation and ultimately will cost me, the taxpayer. We’re already facing the economic impact of COVID-19 and Mississippi simply can’t afford to pay the cost of passing such dangerous legislation when we know what the consequences could be.
The Mississippi ACLU tweeted their support for the Human Rights Campaign’s position and called out lawmakers for not advancing a bill – HB 353 – that would have included gender identity and sexual orientation in the hate crime law, instead choosing to put forward Hill’s “anti-trans athlete bill.”
❗️ACTION ALERT❗️
Tell your elected officials to STOP the attacks against transgender athletes and focus on helping Mississippians.
Send the message with help from @HRC here: https://t.co/IgY0rk6uoV
— ACLU of Mississippi (@ACLU_MS) February 4, 2021
Frank Corder
