The Georgia General Assembly passed a bill Monday after a night’s session aimed at discussing race in schools and paving the way for transgender students to play in girls’ sports teams.
HB1084 prohibits the teaching of nine so-called “divisive concepts,” including that the US is “fundamentally racist” and that “one race is inherently superior to another race.”
The “divisive concepts” are almost identical to those identified in an executive order signed by then-President Donald Trump in 2020 that aimed to ban them from training federal employees. The bill also provides a process for local school boards to investigate complaints from parents about the teaching of the concepts.
The bill is the latest in a series of government actions aimed at curbing discussion of race in schools and banning critical race theory, an academic discipline that examines how racism works in U.S. law and society, leading to has become a lightning rod problem for Republicans.
Last month, the Republican-controlled Mississippi Legislature passed a vaguely worded bill targeting critical race theory. It drew unanimous and harsh criticism from black lawmakers.
During a late-night session Monday, Georgia Republicans added a last-minute measure to legislation that would allow the state high school athletics governing body to ban transgender girls from competing against other girls in public school athletics.
An earlier iteration of the bill, which passed the state Senate but was blocked in the House, would ban transgender boys and girls outright from playing on teams that didn’t match their birth-assigned gender.
Georgia Democrats denounced the last-minute changes. Democratic House Speaker James Beverly described the action, according to the Atlanta Journal constitution, as an attempt to “attack trans children, ban children from sports, while simultaneously attacking teachers.”
“This law is aimed at the most vulnerable Georgians, transgender youth,” said Matthew Wilson, a Democrat official who was quoted in the local press. “It causes us to be not only on the wrong side of history and morality, but also on the wrong end of the litigation.”
But Republican House Speaker David Ralston, who blocked the previous Senate iteration, defended the measure and suggested it was not about directly banning transgender students from the sport.
“We’ll let her [the Georgia High School Association] make those determinations,” Ralston told reporters. “And we have an oversight committee for that. But that is where these decisions need to be made.”
The bill passed through the House on a partisan basis and will now reach Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
In a statement, the Georgia Democratic Party accused Kemp of “pursuing extreme politics” ahead of a “brutal primary” he is scheduled to contest later this year.
Kemp faces a challenge from former Georgia Senator David Perdue, who was endorsed by Donald Trump. The former president threw Kemp aside after refusing to block confirmation of Joe Biden’s win in the state in the 2020 election.
“Parents and teachers can and will work together to provide our children with the best possible education, and politicians like Kemp should keep their partisan agendas out of the classroom,” said Max Flugrath, spokesman for the state Democratic Party.
