INDIANAPOLIS—On Monday, HB 1041—legislation that would ban transgender girls from playing in girls’ K-12 sports teams — passed out of the Senate. State Senator J.D Ford (D-Indianapolis) released the following statement in response:

“Today, I was disappointed and heartbroken to see HB 1041 advance here in our Legislature. Instead of focusing on real, pressing issues like our teacher shortage, a nationwide student mental health crisis and low per-student spending, we’ve chosen to spend our time and energy targeting minors who want to play school sports. The effects of this decision will ripple well beyond the exceedingly rare cases this legislation claims to address (but IHSAA already resolves). This will discourage businesses, sports conferences and increasingly diverse younger generations from coming here. This will worsen the mental health crisis of our students—nationwide polls show that 1 in 3 LGBTQ+ youth feel scared and 57% feel sad as a result of this exact kind of legislation. This is a short-sighted misstep for our state.