By: Adam Willis

BISMARCK — North Dakota lawmakers are considering a bill that would bar high school and college athletes from participating in sports under any sex other than the one on their birth certificate, effectively barring transgender students from competing in most sports under their identifying gender.

House Bill 1298 would prevent publicly funded institutions, like high schools and universities, from allowing any "individual who was assigned the opposite sex at birth to participate on an athletic team" that is designed "exclusively for females or exclusively for males." Additionally, the bill would outlaw any state-owned athletic facility from hosting a competition in which an athlete competes against anyone outside of the gender they were assigned at birth.

But while LGBTQ advocates argued the bill would have far-reaching implications for transgender people in North Dakota, its lead sponsor, Rep. Ben Koppelman, R-West Fargo, said the legislation "has nothing to do with transgender athletes." Instead, Koppelman said he is pursuing changes to the law out of a concern for fairness in sports and to prevent women from being disadvantaged by having to compete against men. Read more via Grand Forks Herald