Florida’s House of Representatives have recently passed a puzzling bill known as Bill 1475 which this bill would prevent transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports throughout Florida in all levels of play. All Democrats voted against the bill except for one, leaving the final result at a 77-40 tally, meaning it passed. Now, this bill is not just discriminatory towards the transgender community, but it does not solve any of the problems that helped this bill gain momentum. The future of many potential athletes has now just been brought to question and for nothing more than something politicians who just do not understand.

The intent behind Florida’s House of Representative voters’ decisions can make anyone believe their hearts were in the right place. They claimed their actions were primarily to protect biologically born women in having a fair playing field but their understanding of the concept is what makes this belief ridiculous and simply wrong.

First off, athletes have always had varying levels of skills and gender plays no role in the equation. A female athlete can outperform any untrained male athlete in a competition, why? Not because of their gender, but because of the work they are willing to put in to improve and become better. This is the part about athletics that Florida’s politicians just do not understand. Their attempt to protect biologically born female-athletes from having to go against transgender-females just comes off as discriminative.

“It is just plain disgusting, it is very discriminatory and it is pushing a very dangerous rhetoric,” junior Alan Morffi said.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. This bill was not necessary in the slightest and is just an attack towards the transgender community. Out of the hundreds of thousands of athletes participating in sports in the state of Florida, there has been a recorded 11 known transgender athletes. Not only that, but the National Collegiate Athletic Association which is the main host for over 1,268 collegiate sports teams across the country already had a plan in place for years regarding transgender athletes’ greater involvement in sports. It is as if they are directing this bill not out of an overwhelming majority, but to create an issue for the sole purpose of increasing partisanship.

Politicians are supposed to correct past problems or at least prevent them before they arise, but this bill is the antithesis of such an idea. Like mentioned previously, Florida and their main college programs are all under the NCAA, so implementing this bill would cause a violation in their terms and agreements with the NCAA.

This would result in Florida’s Collegiate sports to being expelled from the organization, ruining the chances of not just transgender athletes, but all Florida’s athletes in general in moving on to the next stage of their respective sports. Not only would that be a devastating blow to the athletes, but also to the schools themselves knowing how much potential revenue they will miss out on as a direct result of being removed from the NCAA.

So, what does this rule essentially entail? The rule requires medical documentation, testosterone suppression and multiple other documents to verify the athlete’s identity. This rule spans into all of Florida’s main collegiate schools including Florida State University, The University of South Florida, The University of Florida and The University of Central Florida–all of which are home to thousands of athletes.

The other shocking addition to this bill is the inhumane method of confirming a transgender persons identity if the verification is brought to question. The bill would also allow schools to perform “genital inspections” on the suspected athletes. Not only is that an invasion of privacy to anyone, but this sets a clear precedent for other states moving forward on how to handle transgender athletes in a very innapriorate manner.

Take Oklahoma, who recently just finished passing their own bill which would result in the banning of trans females from participating in sports in general from the elementary school level and onwards. It is clear the kind of influence Bill 1475 is having on the rest of the country and the fact that multiple other states are in similar discussions is a cause of serious concern for the entirety of our nation.

When brought under the microscope, Bill 1475 is an outrage for transgender athletes and allies alike. Whether you believe that our politicians’ reasoning in protecting biologically born women’s “rights” was correct or not, there is no denying that this was an issue that did not need a resolution to begin with.