Florida governor signs bill targeting transgender athletes on 1st day of Pride Month

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Tuesday that would bar transgender female athletes from playing on girls' and women's sports teams at public schools.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Tuesday that would bar transgender female athletes from playing on girls' and women's sports teams at public schools -- a move that LGBTQ advocates decried as particularly "unconscionable" on the first day of LGBTQ Pride Month. The so-called Fairness in Women's Sports Act, which was included in a broad education bill, stipulates that girls' or women's teams "may not be open to students of the male sex." It does allow female athletes to play on boys' or men's teams. The bill also includes a provision allowing an allegedly impacted student to sue a school that violates the act. The law, scheduled to go into effect on July 1, applies to public secondary and high schools, public colleges and universities. So far this year, over 30 states have introduced or passed restrictions on transgender athletes, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Florida is the seventh state -- following Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee and West Virginia -- to enact such legislation, according to the LGBTQ advocacy group. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has also issued similar executive orders.