Debating a bill that prohibits federal funding to institutions that allow biological males to compete in women's sports, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., told a House committee Monday that she did not know what a trans girl is.
Foxx, chair of the House Education Committee, was testifying in a House Rules Committee hearing on H.R. 734, "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023." The Republican bill seeks to protect the integrity of women's sports and ensure they remain fair for all female athletes.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the committee's ranking member, asked Foxx how many trans girls would be denied the ability to play sports as a result of the bill.
"I don't know what a trans girl is," Foxx said. "I know what a biological male is and a biological female is."
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., came to Foxx's defense after Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., testifying in opposition to the bill, claimed Foxx said biological men who identified as women do not exist. Massie said he believed Foxx was not challenging their existence, but "this fantasy that they could change their sex."
"I do not deny the existence of people who say they are biologically one sex but identify as another," Foxx said. "Certainly, there are people in this country who say that. My point was, one cannot change one's biological sex. It has not to be found possible.
"I used to teach sociology, back in the '70s and '80s. One of the books that I put on the list for my students to read was a book called 'Conundrum.' It was actually about a male who had grown up as a male who later in life decided he was going to identify as a female. I have been familiar with this phenomenon since way before many other people were familiar with it."
Foxx earlier said it should not matter whether she can define what it means to be transgender because the word "transgender" does not appear in the bill.
"The word trans is nowhere in this bill," she said. "This bill says if you're a biological male, you cannot participate against biological females. It's as simple as that."
The bill has strong support in the House but President Joe Biden has said he would veto it should it reach his desk, which is unlikely given Democrats have a 51-49 edge in the Senate.
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