JACKSONVILLE (WSNN) – Governor Ron DeSantis signs a controversial bill banning transgender athletes from school sports coincidentally on the first day of Pride Month.
Tuesday morning, he spoke about the legislation at Trinity Christian Academy, a Jacksonville private school.
The ban requires athletes to compete on teams determined by the biological sex recorded on their birth certificates.
The governor’s signature comes after the bill’s passage by the state legislature in April.
He says it’s about protecting the fairness and the integrity of women in sports.
“It’s taken many of our girls to college to be able to get an education and to compete, so we believe that it’s very important that the integrity of those competitions is preserved, that these opportunities are protected,” DeSantis said. And I can tell you this – in Florida, girls are going to play girls’ sports and boys are going to play boys’ sports.”
DeSantis invited Selina Soule to speak. She is a former Connecticut track athlete who says she missed the opportunity to move up to the next level in her sport by two slots, because they were filled by transgender athletes.
Moving forward, any student deprived of an athletic opportunity as a result of a violation of this law will have a right to civil remedies.
