By Katharine Jackson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a Republican bill intended to ban transgender women and girls from competing in women's and girls' school sports, delivering at least a short-term victory to social conservatives.
The House passed the measure by 219-203 but it has little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate. President Joe Biden has also voiced his opposition to the bill, calling it discriminatory, and has vowed to veto it if needed.
Still, the vote was a win for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy who hopes to keep his narrow Republican majority unified, as a fight over raising the nation's debt ceiling looms.
"There's a reason why there's men and women's sports," McCarthy told reporters on the grounds of the Capitol, where he held a news conference with three female athletes who had competed with transgender athletes and lost. "It's about fairness. And if there's one final fiber of America, it's about giving people an opportunity."
If passed, the bill would change the civil rights law known as Title IX to require that a student's sex be "based on an individual's reproductive biology and genetics at birth."
Enacted in 1972, Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs or activities that receive federal funding. It was created to ensure equal opportunity for participation and opened the door for more women in sports.
Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal, who said during Wednesday's debate that she is raising a transgender daughter, said, "This bill fuels a virulent hate campaign against kids who just want to play with their friends."
The White House on Monday said the bill would effectively deny access to sports for transgender students, even at the elementary school level.
Republicans have stepped up their focus on transgender youth. On Wednesday, Florida education officials voted to ban classroom instruction on gender identity and social orientation in public schools through high school. That expanded on a law signed by likely Republican presidential candidate Governor Ron DeSantis, which had banned such lessons for younger students and was derided by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" bill.
Twenty-one U.S. states already have transgender school sports bans in place, according to the Human Rights Campaign LGBTQ advocacy group.
The Biden administration has proposed prohibiting schools from banning transgender athletes from playing on teams consistent with their gender identities, with exceptions possible for the highest levels of competition.