by Bruce Walker
The Female Athletics Integrity of Records Act was introduced last week in the Michigan House of Representatives.
Otherwise known as House Bill 4546, the FAIR Act aims to require the categorization of sporting event awards, rankings, and records with each competitor’s biological sex. If signed into law, the law would apply to any publicly-funded event with clearly designated male and female competitions.
Rep. Jaime Greene, R-Richmond, introduced the bill, which she sponsored along with 28 other Republican legislators.
“Women worked hard for decades to put Title IX protections in place so they could have equal opportunities to compete,” Greene (pictured above) said in a statement. “Allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports undermines our progress as a society and reduces women to second-class status. Girls and women in Michigan deserve to have equal opportunities to showcase their talent and compete fairly, and I want to make sure we don’t sideline our girls!”
The bill defines “biological sex” as “the state of being female or the state of being male, as an innate, objective biological condition determined at the conception of the human being.”
The bill clarifies “sporting event” as an athletic competition in which:
1. Individuals compete individually.
2. There are separate competitions for females and males.
3. The event is in whole or in part publicly funded.
According to her news release, the impetus for HB4546 was the 2022 NCAA Swimming National Championships in which All-American female competitor Riley Gaines tied with Lia Thomas, who was born male. NCAA judges subsequently granted the victory to Thomas.
House Bill 4546 was referred to the House Government Operations Committee for consideration.
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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
Photo “Jaime Greene” by Jaime Greene. Background Photo “Swimmers” by Jim De Ramos.
