Senators: No transgender athletes should be allowed in intercollegiate athletics

CHEYENNE — State lawmakers took a step Friday toward banning transgender athletes at the University of Wyoming and the state’s community colleges from playing in intercollegiate athletics divisions that match their gender identity.

The Senate Education Committee passed Senate File 44, “Fairness in sports-intercollegiate athletics,” by a 4-1 vote, with the sole Democrat on the panel, Sen. Chris Rothfuss of Laramie, voting against the measure. Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, brought the bill, following a successful effort in 2023 to ban transgender athletes from competing on teams that match gender identity in grades seven through 12.

“The bill … is fairly simple. It requires students at the University of Wyoming and Wyoming community colleges to compete in intercollegiate athletic competitions based on their biological sex,” Schuler said. “What this does, it just protects those female — biological female athletes — not only with the safety issues, but the fairness issues.”

Dickey Shanor, chief of staff for State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, said Degenfelder fully supports SF 44. Kirk Young, president of Western Wyoming Community College, said that although community colleges have been disappointed the NCAA has been silent on the issue and has not offered guidance, he supports the bill and the direction it provides.

Nyoka Erikson, a Laramie woman who said she plays roller derby and has played on both male and female hockey teams, urged lawmakers to vote against the bill.

She said she has competed with both cisgender and transgender women.

“I don’t think it is appropriate for the state to tell sporting organizations what their policy should be,” Erikson said. “I additionally do believe, because of my experiences, that trans women do belong in sports.”

University of Wyoming volleyball player Macey Boggs spoke in favor of the legislation.

“During my last season at UW, my team was punished with two losses for refusing to play against a male athlete on an opposing team,” Boggs said, saying that ultimately kept the team out of the Mountain West Conference championship.

“I was (denied) the chance to play my final collegiate matches because we faced a situation no woman should have to face: either compete against a team rostering a male athlete on a woman’s scholarship, robbing us of fair and safe competition, or forfeit the rest of our season,” Boggs said.

Boggs said she has joined a lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference over the incident.

Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, asked Schuler if the bill would authorize UW to ban other teams from bringing transgender athletes playing for teams that match their gender identity to Wyoming to compete. Schuler said the bill does not do that.