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# Republican senator launches attack on trans youth
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/republican-senator-launches-attack-on-trans-youth/
- Published: 2021-01-04T10:30:21.000Z
- Updated: 2021-01-04T10:09:27.000Z
- Description: US Republican senator, Mike Lee of Utah, has launched an attack on trans youth playing sports alongside other children.
- Author: Rachel Badham
- Tags: News, Sport, LGBTQ, Rugby Football Union, Sports, Stonewall, Trans athletes, Trans Rights, Trans Youth, Transgender, UK News, Utah, World Rugby

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/mike-lee.jpg)

**US** Republican senator, **Mike Lee** of **Utah**, has launched an attack on trans youth playing sports alongside other children, saying trans people participate in sport *“in a deliberate, sadistic effort to harm girls and women”*. Lee is part of a group of Republican lawmakers behind the ‘Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act’, which defines sex as *“based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth”*. If the group’s proposed bill is ever successful, it would revoke federal funding from schools that allow trans girls to participate *“in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls”*.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/lgbt-sports-soccer-ball-1.jpg)

Speaking to [**Deseret News**](https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/12/29/22205280/transgender-women-sports-titleix-kelly-loeffler-mike-lee-federal-funds-high-school-college-ncaa?ref=scenemag.co.uk), Lee said, without providing any evidence or a single example: *“Biological males might as a pretext use certain words in order to qualify themselves in girls and women’s athletics… Others still might do it in a deliberate, sadistic effort to harm girls and women.”* Despite his track record of endorsing anti-LGBTQ+ policies, he insisted: *“This is not about being transphobic or having anything against transgender persons. This is a simple question of fairness and physical safety.”*

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/football-600-400.jpg)

In the UK, there has also been debate surrounding trans women participating in sports. 2020 [rulings](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/update-english-rugby-league-allows-trans-women-to-play/) from **World Rugby**, the international union for the sport, stated trans women should not be allowed to play professionally on the basis of ‘safety’, however the **Rugby Football Union** (RFU) in **England** has announced it will continue to allow trans women to participate.

LGBTQ+ organisation **Stonewall** [said ](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/world-rugby-rules-against-trans-players/)it is ‘deeply disappointed’ with World Rugby’s new regulations. Chief executive, **Nancy Kelley**, added: *“The proposals were based on hypothetical data modelling that has little relevance to the questions of fairness and safety in rugby that the policy review sought to address.”*