Lt. Gov. Burt Jones opened the 2025 Legislative Session by announcing a priority for the Senate — No Boys in Girls Sports. Sen. Greg Dolezal, R – Cumming, filed Senate Bill 1 — the ‘Fair and Safe Athletic Opportunities Act’ — which would ban biological males from participating in women’s sports across Georgia.
“Biological men do not belong in women’s sports, period,” said Jones. “This is common sense to everyone but the most radical liberals in Georgia. The Senate has always led the way on protecting women’s sports and with Senate Bill 1, we will continue to be on the right side of this common-sense issue.
“I will never waver in the fight to protect our sisters and our daughters participating on equal footing in Georgia sports,” Jones continued. “I look forward to Senate Bill 1 becoming law and the protection of women’s sports becoming a reality for all female athletes in Georgia.”
According to Jones, the ‘Fair and Safe Athletic Opportunities Act,’ is a result of findings relating to the need to protect girls’ and women’s athletics and the work of the Senate Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports.
Under this legislation, middle and high schools, along with colleges and participating private schools, would be required to designate interscholastic sports teams as either male, female, or co-ed, based on the participant’s sex at birth. According to Jones, males would not be allowed to participate in any interscholastic competition on any team that is designated as female. Any student will be allowed to participate on a male or co-ed team.
The bill also requires separate restrooms and changing areas at athletic events and establishes a grievance procedure.
This is one of five recommendations coming out of the committee. The other four recommendations include:
● Provide protections in statute for the protection of women’s sports in Georgia at the secondary and collegiate levels for public high schools, colleges, and universities and private institutions that compete with and against public schools in sports. This should include rules providing that, based on the athlete’s biological sex at birth, men cannot compete in sports designated for women.
● Require schools that host or sponsor sporting events to provide separate changing and dressing facilities for male and female athletes based on their biological sex at birth.
● Provide enforcement options for rules regarding women’s sports participation and separate changing and dressing facilities, including grievance proceedings and civil remedies for aggrieved participants and the authority to withhold state funding from schools who fail or refuse to abide by these rules.
● Adopt other rules, as necessary, to ensure that the regulation of sports is based on promoting and preserving competitive fairness and protecting student safety and that female student athletes have fair opportunities to demonstrate their strength, skills, and athletic abilities and to obtain recognition, accolades, college scholarships, and the numerous other long-term benefits that result from participating and competing in sports.
