Transgender athlete ban would be permanent under House bill

By Jackson Cooper and Erin Hynes, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri’s restriction on transgender athletes’ participation in high school and collegiate sports would become permanent under a bill preliminarily approved by the House on Monday.
House Bill 1663, sponsored by Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson, seeks to remove the expiration date on the statute currently mandating that students compete based on their sex assigned at birth.
The initial legislation was passed by the Missouri General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson in 2023. It is set to expire on Aug. 28, 2027, the result of a sunset clause that permitted the legislation to enter into force while lawmakers could better study its impact.
However, Seitz said there was no need to review the law further before removing the sunset clause. He said it was only added by the Senate in 2023 to stop filibustering and appease Senate Democrats.
“The Senate putting in the sunset clause back then was just a matter of capitulation. Right is right and it doesn’t change over time,” Seitz said.
Seitz’s bill only strikes the expiration date and does not change the substance of the 2023 law.
Opposition on the floor was strong from House Democrats, who said the bill tackled a nonissue.
Transgender students represent a tiny fraction of athletes participating in high school and intercollegiate sports. While exact statistics are not kept, NCAA President Charlie Baker testified in 2024 that he knew of fewer than 10 transgender athletes competing nationwide out of more than 500,000 NCAA athletes.