On Tuesday, June 1—which happens to be the first day of LGBTQ+ Pride Month—Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an exclusionary, transphobic bill into law in the state of Florida. As Daily Kos has continued to cover, anti-trans bills have taken the nation by storm from all corners of the country. Some of these bills try to stop physicians from providing gender-affirming, age-appropriate health care to trans youth, while others try to prevent transgender folks of all ages from updating the sex on their birth certificates. Perhaps the bills which have gotten the most national attention are the anti-trans sports bills that seek to stop trans girls from participating on girls’ sports teams.

DeSantis has just signed such bill, misleadingly titled the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” into law. In response, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced its intention to sue DeSantis. 

This bill, like similar ones pushed by Republicans across the country, insists on students participating on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not their actual gender identity. In Florida, the original birth certificate would be the basis of affirmation, not self-ID. Some bills focus just on high school or college, while others go into effect as early as kindergarten. Either way, it’s isolating, offensive, and downright demeaning for the trans youth who simply want to be like their cisgender peers who have the opportunity to play sports and hang out with friends.

The Florida bill in particular is insidious as it allows students to sue the school if the school allowed a trans girl to play on the girls’ team. 

“Lawmakers across the country who support these bills have failed to provide examples of any issue in their states to attempt to justify these attacks on transgender youth, laying bare the reality that they are fueled by discriminatory intent and not supported by fact,” the HRC said in a statement.

This angle is accurate: Republican lawmakers from across the country have been unable to cite specific instances of issues arising from trans girls participating on girls’ sports teams, though many in the GOP have referred to vague concerns from anonymous coaches and parents that issues could come up. Basically, it’s legislating over nothing and stoking hysteria over a non-issue.

If you’re curious what actual student-athletes think, more than 500 signed a letter to the NCAA urging the organization to withdraw championships from states that implemented anti-trans sports legislations. Openly trans people are also able to compete in the Olympics, making it additionally outrageous that kindergarteners would not able to play on a school team. 

“At the end of the day,” DeSantis said, as reported by The Advocate, “if the price of giving opportunities that can last a lifetime for all girls in the state of Florida is that we lose an event or two, I would choose to protect our girls every day of the week and twice on Sunday.” By losing “an event or two,” DeSantis is likely referring to the NCAA.

With all of this as background, what are Republicans who support these hateful legislations saying? The general party line is to “protect” women’s sports. DeSantis said as much at a recent event, as reported by NBC 6 and the Associated Press, saying, “I can tell you this: in Florida, girls are going to play girls sports and boys are going to play boys sports.” But here’s the thing: Trans girls are girls. Trans boys are boys. Making trans girls participate in boys teams is not making boys play with boys—it’s making a girl play with boys.

Frustratingly, even openly trans woman Caitlyn Jenner kept in line with her party by suggesting that trans girls are only “truly trans” if they’ve gone through some degree of medical intervention—an argument that’s made all the more maddening when one considers that it’s her own party that’s trying to stop trans youth from accessing those precise healthcare treatments to begin with.

As Daily Kos has covered, trans youth—and trans folks of all ages—are uniquely vulnerable, especially when we consider an intersectional lens and narrow in on, for example, trans youth of color or unhoused trans youth. Studies show that trans youth are more likely to be bullied, harassed, and even assaulted in school. They are also more likely to leave high school without a diploma and to become unhoused. As adults, trans folks report disproportionate levels of job and housing discrimination, and even sexual violence; especially trans women of color and trans sex workers.

The absolute last thing a deeply vulnerable, marginalized population needs is even more legislation aiming to keep them on the sidelines, but that’s precisely what Republicans are doing. Anything, it seems, to distract from the party’s colossal failures during the pandemic.