AUSTIN — The Texas Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would let the state's high school athletics organization disqualify student athletes on steroids, including transgender boys undergoing hormone replacement therapy.
"This is for fairness and safety of the students," said bill author Bob Hall, R-Edgewood. "Steroids can create a situation where it would be unsafe and unfair for students to compete."
Senate Bill 2095 passed easily with support from four Democrats — Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen, Eddie Lucio of Brownsville, Carlos Uresti of San Antonio and Royce West of Dallas. The bill must win the approval of a majority of the Senate once more before it's given final approval and heads to the House for further debate.
Hall denied that the bill was written in response or to target transgender students like Mack Beggs, a transgender boy and wrestler at Trinity High School in Euless.
"Isn't the real intent of your bill to ban students from competing who are taking steroids for gender dysphoria?" asked Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston. Hall responded, "Absolutely not. ... It is not in response to that."
If passed into law, the bill would allow the University Interscholastic League to disqualify an athlete if "the safety of competing students or the fairness of a particular competition has been or will be substantially affected by the student's steroid use." It would also require students to notify the UIL if they begin taking steroids, and to hand over their "health-related information" to the league.
UIL rules ban steroid use. But they also include a "safe harbor" provision that allows students to take the hormone if they are "dispensed, prescribed, delivered and administered by a medical practitioner for a valid medical purpose." Rules also bar athletes, regardless of their gender identity, from wrestling members of the opposite sex.
Much of the debate Tuesday focused on the bill's effects on transgender athletes. The 17-year-old Beggs' transition grabbed national headlines after he went undefeated and won a UIL regional title.
Because his birth certificate still lists his sex as "female," the UIL requires Beggs to wrestle girls. But he will be wrestling boys this summer after USA Wrestling, the national amateur wrestling governing body, changed its policy to require transgender boys who've undergone puberty to wrestle against other boys.
Beggs recently won the UIL state girls' wrestling title after being sued by a fellow wrestler for having an unfair advantage. That suit was dismissed by a Travis County judge last week.
When pressed by Garcia over his bill's intent, Hall snapped at her: "Senator, you asked me that question and I gave you an answer. Are you impugning my integrity?"
Garcia responded, "I'm just suggesting to you that it's hard for me to reconcile your responses."
Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, said he agreed with Hall that student athletes should use steroids only if they have a medically approved reason. But he added that the UIL's mandatory testing program, defunded in 2015, found that few students abused the hormone.
After eight years, the state had spent more than than $10 million testing thousands of samples, The Associated Press reported. Just a handful of samples — 11 of the first 30,000 tests — revealed cheating.
"We know the intention of your bill. I agree with you," Menéndez said to Hall. "We should be doing everything we can to keep young people who may just be wanting that little edge from using steroids."
Hall shot down two amendments to his bill. Menéndez wanted to force the UIL to allow transgender boys to compete against other boys if they were disqualified for hormone use related to their transition. Garcia proposed that the state adopt parts of the NCAA's transgender athlete policy, including prohibiting transgender girls who have not undergone surgery or not yet begun taking hormones from competing against girls.
Both amendments were shot down, and the bill was given preliminary approval by a vote of 24-7. Under Senate rules, the chamber must pass the bill once more before it can be sent to the House. The measure must still be vetted by the lower chamber before it could become law.
The Beggs family did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the bill's passage.
Staff writer Michael Florek contributed to this report.
