By Source NM
A committee tabled legislation Feb. 13 from New Mexico Republicans that sought to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports teams and echoed an executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this month.
The state House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee voted 4-2 on party lines to table House Bill 185, following an incendiary argument over the committee’s rules.
The bill also echoes legislation the U.S. House of Representatives passed last month; 25 states have limited or banned transgender women’s participation in women’s sports.
Three of HB 185’s sponsors, Republican Reps. Rod Montoya from Farmington, Andrea Reeb of Clovis and Rebecca Dow of Truth or Consequences, argued it protects scholarships and opportunities for women who are “displaced by male athletes.”
LGBTQ+ groups, former athletes, youth coaches and transgender people objected to the bill in public comment, while other athletes, former coaches and lobbyists advocated their support.
Zoë Unruh, a nurse and former collegiate basketball player for Washington University in St. Louis, said the legislation’s assumptions about trans athletes are not based on data.
“This bill takes away the opportunity for trans youth to compete in sports and that’s really not OK,” Unruh said. “A ban on trans women athletes does not protect anyone; instead it endangers all women and girls in the category, especially those who are already marginalized.”
Tensions erupted after Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) condemned the bill.
“Together, we can create a world, a state where everyone regardless of their gender identity has the opportunity to play, compete, and belong in New Mexico,” Romero said in the conclusion of her statement. “Trans people belong in New Mexico.”
Montoya asked Romero if she had a question about the bill. Romero responded that she only had a statement.
This prompted objections from State Rep. Stefanie Lord (R-Sandia Park) who said Chair Rep. Joanne Ferrary (D-Las Cruces) had unfairly limited her from making statements and had requested Lord only ask questions.
In the 33-minute portion of the hearing for committee questions and vote, Lord and Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo) asked questions and received answers for 23 minutes.
“Excuse me,” Ferrary said. “You had plenty of time to make plenty of statements.”
Lord and Ferrary then proceeded to have a back-and-forth on the topic.
Subsequently, following the 4-2 roll call vote to table the bill, Lord and Block requested time to explain their votes, and Ferrary set one-minute limits on their comments.
Lord said she was “being shut down every time just because I am a Republican; I have no equality, no equity as a woman and my voice is being silenced.”