Thursday's passage of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act was a vital move by House Republicans, even if President Joe Biden ends up vetoing it, Rep. Andrew Clyde said Thursday on Newsmax.
"I was proud to vote for the Protection of Women and Girls Sports Act this morning and I'm glad it passed," the Georgia Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report." "I look forward to it going to the Senate and being signed by the president. If he vetoes it, that's on him, but I think it's so important that we protect this."
The measure would change the Title IX civil rights law to require that a student athlete's team determination would be based on "an individual's reproductive biology and genetics at birth," thereby banning transgender women and girls from competing in female team sports.
The measure passed in a party-line vote of 219-203 and likely has no chance of passing in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Biden has also called the measure discriminatory and would veto it, even if it would get to his desk.
But Clyde said on Newsmax that the measure is important because female athletes are "working their entire lifetime to win, and to have a male come in, a biological male, and steal their accomplishments is absolutely unacceptable."
The White House, in a statement, said that preventing students from participating on a sports team consistent with their gender identity can "stigmatize and isolate them," making the issue "different from the experience of a student who is not selected for a team," but Clyde did not agree.
"We are looking at a minority of students that get to choose what team they want to play on because of the gender identity that they want to claim," he said. "I'm sorry, but people are born male and female. You cannot change your gender, to simply say, 'Hey, I'm going to reidentify as something different, a male as a female, so I can now dominate in a particular woman's sport.'"
Clyde added that by doing so, a transgender athlete can "cancel out some girl, some woman who has spent her lifetime practicing and working to win."
"To absolutely destroy that accomplishment, that's not what Title IX was intended for," Clyde said. "It was intended on the scholarship level on the competition level to protect and enhance women's sports, and that's what we should be doing as Congress."
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.