The Delaware Senate Education Committee heard extensive and contentious testimony on SB 215, the Fairness in Girls' Sports Act, which would require student athletes to compete according to their biological sex as recorded at birth; no vote was taken on the bill, with committee chair Senator Sturgeon citing lack of nuance and announcing circulation for signatures after JFC break. SB 223, a personnel records code cleanup bill, and SB 227, an equalization bill, were also addressed, with SB 227 pulled from the agenda entirely.
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Norma Eckerd and Brittany Mumford both argued that even the bill's sponsor has acknowledged there are no transgender girls currently competing in Delaware interscholastic sports, with Mumford stating the bill is 'performative rather than responsive to a real problem'; Senator Richardson cited a 2023 state Board of Education regulation and Red Clay school board policies as evidence of need but did not directly rebut the current-participation claim.
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“According to all available research, there are no transgender athletes currently competing in Delaware. This bill is therefore performative rather than responsive to a real problem. We're spending time legislating something that has not happened while many of our students still can't read.”
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Sign in to subscribeSo we were originally scheduled for, I guess it was 1:30 to 3:30. I thought we were only going to get 2:30 to 3:30 as a result of the delay. But actually we're going to push everything back. So we had 2:30 to 4:30. So that way we can give, you know, have a thorough discussion around the bill that will probably generate the most discussion before us today. So let me officially call the meeting to order. Senate Education Committee is hereby called Order. Should any member participating virtually experience technical difficulties, please email Nicole [email protected] the public may participate virtually by registering via the meeting link that is posted on the General Assembly's website. Instructions for providing public comment are posted on the General Assembly's website under this committee meeting's notice and will be provided during the public comment portion of the hearing. Members of the public should sign in for attendance. The sign in sheet is up here next to Nicole and indicate if they would like to speak on a bill again. Now that we're being recorded and it's on the record, this meeting was delayed by one hour because session went longer than planned and…
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