MARBLEHEAD — The House passed the highly controversial “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” on Tuesday. But U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton joined fellow Democrats in voting against it.
According to the bill’s language, “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” Should it become law, it could change Title IX protections and ensure that only people assigned female at birth could participate in girl’s and women’s sports.
The vote on Tuesday landed with 218 in favor and 206 against the bill.
Before the vote took place, Moulton posted a press release stating, “I will vote NO. This is not the sort of balanced, fairness-oriented policy I’ve advocated for, and I won’t vote yes on this bill just because it is the first option that comes to the floor.”
Not only did Moulton vote against the bill this time around, but he also voted no when the bill was introduced back in 2023.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 3.3% of high school students across the United States identify as transgender, while 2.2% reported questioning if they were transgender. The passing of this bill could affect a significant number of these individuals by forcing them to participate in sports according to their biological sex.
Back in the fall of 2024, Moulton was under fire for some of the comments he made surrounding transgender athletes.
Moulton made statements saying, “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on the playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
Shortly after his statements, protests were held outside of his Salem office and a top aide to Moulton resigned. Despite the backlash, Moulton later expressed that he stands by his statements even though he may not have used the correct words.
It comes as somewhat of a shock that Moulton still voted no on Tuesday following those statements as the bill would do exactly what his statements claimed that he wants: prevent his daughters from being run down on the field by a male or formerly male athlete.
But in his press release from Tuesday, Moulton points out what he believes are the problems surrounding the bill.
“It is too extreme; it simply goes too far,” Moulton said, “because it fails to distinguish between children and adults and different levels of athletics, school-aged kids who simply want to play recreational sports and build camaraderie like everybody else could be targeted by the federal government.”
Moulton also protects his family in his statement stating his children play co-ed sports just like he did as a child, and he doesn’t want his children to be subjected to invasive violations of personal privacy that this bill would allow.
“Under this law, a 10-year-old girl who seems ‘too tall’ or even just ‘too good’ could be targeted by officials and forced to release medical information or have her private parts inspected,” Moulton added. “[It’s] disturbing to say the least and a slippery slope for school policy and youth athletics.”
As of Wednesday, the Senate received the bill. It be reviewed by committee before the Senate debates the bill and votes on it. If passed, it will move to the president for approval.
