LGBTQ rights activist Jessica Shortall reports that the Texas state house committee on Youth Health & Safety on Thursday passed a bill that would allow for the inspection of girl athletes’ genitals when someone believes that individual to be transgender when they are participating in high school or grade school sports teams.

State House Bill 25, sponsored by Republican Valoree Swanson, would ban transgender children from participating in sports and other school-related activities.  It would also provide the opportunity for individuals to challenge the gender identity of female athletes, who would then have to undergo a genital inspection and other invasive procedures if they could not produce medical evidence establishing their gender.

In committee testimony, Swanson stated that transgender youth are taking over girls’ sports in the state, but when challenged, she could not name a single incident when a transgender athlete competed in the state.  Swanson referred to transgender tennis player Renee Richards, who competed briefly on the women’s professional tour in the 1970s, as an example; however, Richards competing did not open floodgates of transgender athletes participating in women’s tennis.

Without being able to cite a case, Swanson carried on, claiming that she was concerned about a girl losing a spot on a team to a transgender athlete.  She supported a measure that would provide for the inspection of girls’ genitals by “an appropriate person,” although there was no definition of what “an appropriate person” would be.

Fellow Republican Bryan Slaton, a pastor, said that children being challenged to prove their gender could submit “chromosome tests” as evidence.