Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia signed a bill into law Thursday aimed to protect girls' sports.
The Save Girls Sports Act protects both high school and college female athletes from being forced to compete against biological males.
The bill cleared the state House last month in an overwhelming 78-20 vote before passing the state Senate 18-15.
Justice hinted that he would sign the bill two weeks ago in a briefing.
“From the standpoint of how I feel about it personally...I just can’t possibly get through my head that it is the right thing for us at a middle school level or a high school level in our state for me not to support the bill...So, I do support the bill.”
The legislation states that there are “inherent differences between biological males and biological females,” and says “in the context of sports involving competitive skill or contact, biological males and biological females are not in fact similarly situated.”
The Family Policy Council of West Virginia president Allen Whitt expressed his excitement.
“The new law prevents any biological male from falsely claiming he is female simply to gain the opportunity to dominate athletic competitions against our middle, high school and college female athletes. The governor did the common sense thing here and signed a law that is wildly popular with both conservative republicans and traditional democrats.”
After the NCAA launched threats against any states that aim to protect girls’ sports, Whitt said”it’s politically and financially-motivated LGBTQAI activists groups like the NCAA that are part of the problem.”
“They care far more about profit than the safety and fair playing conditions for West Virginia’s female competitors,” he added.
West Virginia is just one of many states that have enacted restrictions on transgender athletes, including Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, as Human Events News previously reported.
