87S30369 JES-D
 
  By: Swanson H.B. No. 25
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to requiring public school students to compete in
  interscholastic athletic competitions based on biological sex.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that:
               (1)  historically, boys participate in interscholastic
  athletics at a higher rate than girls, and a noticeable disparity
  continues between the athletic participation rates of students who
  are girls and students who are boys in University Interscholastic
  League member schools;
               (2)  courts have recognized a legitimate and important
  governmental interest in redressing past discrimination against
  girls in athletics on the basis of sex and promoting equality of
  athletic opportunity between the sexes under Title IX of the
  Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. Section 1681 et seq.), a
  federal civil rights statute; and
               (3)  courts have recognized that classification by sex
  is the only feasible classification to promote the governmental
  interest of providing for interscholastic athletic opportunities
  for girls.
         SECTION 2.  The purpose of this Act is to further the
  governmental interest of ensuring that sufficient interscholastic
  athletic opportunities remain available for girls to remedy past
  discrimination on the basis of sex.
         SECTION 3.  Subchapter D, Chapter 33, Education Code, is
  amended by adding Section 33.0834 to read as follows:
         Sec. 33.0834.  INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC COMPETITION BASED
  ON BIOLOGICAL SEX. (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b), an
  interscholastic athletic team sponsored or authorized by a school
  district or open-enrollment charter school may not allow a student
  to compete in an interscholastic athletic competition sponsored or
  authorized by the district or school that is designated for the
  biological sex opposite to the student's biological sex as
  correctly stated on:
               (1)  the student's official birth certificate, as
  described by Subsection (c); or
               (2)  if the student's official birth certificate
  described by Subdivision (1) is unobtainable, another government
  record.
         (b)  An interscholastic athletic team described by
  Subsection (a) may allow a female student to compete in an
  interscholastic athletic competition that is designated for male
  students if a corresponding interscholastic athletic competition
  designated for female students is not offered or available.
         (c)  For purposes of this section, a statement of a student's
  biological sex on the student's official birth certificate is
  considered to have correctly stated the student's biological sex
  only if the statement was:
               (1)  entered at or near the time of the student's birth;
  or
               (2)  modified to correct a clerical error in the
  student's biological sex.
         (d)  The University Interscholastic League shall adopt rules
  to implement this section, provided that the rules must be approved
  by the commissioner in accordance with Section 33.083(b).
         SECTION 4.  This Act applies to any interscholastic athletic
  competition sponsored or authorized by a school district or
  open-enrollment charter school that occurs on or after the
  effective date of this Act.
         SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
  a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
  provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.  If this
  Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
  Act takes effect on the 91st day after the last day of the
  legislative session.