SB 15: Protecting Women’s College Sports, Signed into Law

Governor Abbott has signed SB 15 by Senator Middleton into law. This bill protects female athletes by preventing males from competing against them in their sport. You can read more about this bill and what it does for our Texas female athletes below.

Top female swimmer, Riley Gaines, shared her story about competing against a biological male in her testimony in favor of SB 15.

Riley was forced to compete against a 6 foot 4 inches tall biological male, Leah Thomas. Riley actually tied with Thomas for the title in the 200 yard freestyle. However, the NCAA told Riley she had to go home empty handed because, “Leah had to hold the trophy for photo purposes.” Riley shared in her testimony that she, “felt betrayed, belittled, and like my efforts, and the sacrifices that I had made had been reduced to a photo op to validate the identity and the feelings of a male – but my feelings did not matter.”

In addition to this injustice at the podium, all of the female athletes were also forced to share a locker room with Thomas, where male genitalia was exposed in a room full of 18 to 22 year old women.

This is unacceptable. In order to protect our college female athletes, we have signed SB 15 into law so this absurd, unsafe, and unjust behavior will never take place in the state of Texas.

You can watch Riley Gaines’ full testimony here: https://youtu.be/L8fdt_coPCw