Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation Tuesday that prohibits transgender women from participating on female sports teams in college.
The state had previously banned transgender athletes from participating in female youth sports from grades K-12.
Under the law, students are prohibited from playing under a different gender identity even after undergoing hormone treatment.
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"Look, if you are a biological male, you are not going to be competing in women’s and girls' sports in Alabama. It’s about fairness, plain and simple," Ivey said in a statement.
The movement for the college regulations began in April when legislation advanced in the middle of the month.
The K-12 ban was put in place in 2021.
"Forcing women to compete against biological men would reverse decades of progress that women have made for equal opportunity in athletics," Republican Rep. Susan DuBose, the bill’s sponsor, told the committee last month. Dubose said "no amount of hormone therapy can undo all those advantages" of being born male.
The bill says biological girls would not be allowed to participate in boys and men's sports.
The ban has drawn criticism from members and supporters of the LGBTQ+ community.
Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey, Alabama state director of the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ people, said the legislation is part of a "systematic attack against LGBTQ+ people" in Alabama and elsewhere.
"In just two years, she and extremist lawmakers in Alabama have passed four anti-LGBTQ+ bills. From dictating what bathrooms we can use to blatantly ignoring the actual problems in women’s sports, these politicians are making Alabama an increasingly hostile place for transgender people and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole," Anderson-Harvey said.
Twenty other states have restrictions on transgender girls and women participating in female sports.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
