MI Republicans Think It's “Inappropriate” to Ask GOP Lawmaker to Prove Their Gender

Woolford would not publicly disclose his medical history, but under his own proposed laws, children across Michigan might have to.

Screen Capture, Michigan Legislature

A Republican state representative from Michigan known for championing anti-trans legislation was left speechless on Thursday, after his Democratic colleague, Representative Mike McFall, asked him a supposedly simple question:

“Are you trans?”

The Republican, Rep. Jason Woolford, sat in a long, awkward silence during the committee hearing for HB 4066 and HB 4469, a set of anti-trans bills targeting youth. The crowded room turned in towards him, but Woolford sat there, slack-jawed.

He could not—would not—answer the question.

“...are you?” Woolford finally said.

“I asked you the question,” McFall said.

“I’m asking the question back to you,” Woolford replied. Lawmakers began talking over each other and the Government Operations Committee Chair, Rep. Brian BeGole, slammed the gavel. However, McFall persisted. “I want to know: How does a 14-year-old girl prove whether or not she is trans to a 50-year-old coach?”

“I don't think that's an appropriate question to be asking here today,” said Rep. BeGole, before moving onto the next speaker.

When the May 15 meeting eventually concluded—the bill passed a committee vote along party lines—Woolford still had not answered the question. In other words, he refused to disclose to a room full of strangers the nature of his sex assigned at birth, the size and shape of his internal and external genitalia, the state of his gonads, his chromosomal composition, his testosterone levels, and/or whether he is receiving or ever has received gender-affirming care.

But under Woolford’s own proposed laws, children across Michigan—trans, intersex and otherwise—could be required to disclose this information at the drop of a hat, deploying unscientific, invasive, and contrived sexual purity tests onto countless children.

“We should want more young people to play sports in our state, not put up more barriers for all girls—like invasive inspections and ridicule about what gender they are because their hair is too short, they’re too tall, their shoulders are too broad, or because they have a good serve,” said Emme Zanotti, a representative from Equality Michigan at that same hearing for the bills.

If passed, HB 4066 would ban trans girls from women's sports. A student’s eligibility to compete on a women’s team would be based on the “sex,” which the legislature defines as whatever category was listed on their original birth certificate—a subjective, split-second decision determined by whoever fills out the paperwork, who may or may not be a doctor.

This at-a-glance approach is based on a person’s perceived external genitalia at birth; it does not address any other determinants of biological sex, such as internal genitalia or chromosomal composition. The bill also calls into question the eligibility of intersex athletes to play and functionally outs trans kids and kids with intersex conditions to all of their peers.

Meanwhile, HB 4469 would amend the Michigan state law to clarify that it “does not prohibit” segregation in sports based on “sex,” setting a dangerous precedent for the dismantlement of other trans legal protections in the state.

Now, the bills can make their way to the House floor, where earlier this year, eight Democrats defected from the party line to vote in favor of a resolution calling on Michigan’s scholastic sports body to discriminate against trans athletes.

In an anti-trans speech in support of that bill, Woolford, a co-sponsor, described trans kids as “males that want to beat up on girls and our women.”

The resolution died in the Senate, where Democrats have a one-seat majority. Meanwhile, in the House, Republicans lead.

The overwhelming majority of Michiganders who showed up for public comment on Thursday spoke out in opposition of the anti-trans bills. This included Kye Campbell-Fox, a researcher at Michigan State University, who co-authored a paper on trans sports policy published in the International Journal of Transgender Health.

“This bill may be about sports, but it’s not about sports,” he told the committee, pointing to the record-breaking numbers of bills passed across the country targeting every aspect of trans life—from medical care, to state IDs, to bathroom usage.

“If this bill [was] just about sports, it wouldn’t be proposed in coordination with all of these other anti-trans bills,” he said.

Meanwhile, the primary witness in favor of the bill was Payton McNabb, who, like countless young athletes every year, sustained a legitimately traumatic (but not statistically extraordinary) brain injury while playing high school volleyball in 2022.

McNabb is not from Michigan, nor did she play volleyball in Michigan, nor does she live in Michigan now. However, as per GLAAD, she works as a professional anti-trans activist, flying all across the country to promote anti-trans laws as an ambassador for the Independent Women’s Forum, a far-right group that helped engineer Project 2025. Anti-trans activist Riley Gaines also sat in on the meeting via Zoom.

The reality these activists refuse to acknowledge is that trans and intersex children have long since competed with athletes across the spectrums of gender and sex, without causing a wave of injuries to other players.

As Erin in the Morning has previously reported, these kinds of anti-trans policies rely on junk science and inflated statistics to manufacture a moral panic around the existence of trans youth. Anti-trans athlete efforts have impacted competitions ranging from running, powerlifting and swimming to darts, poker and esports. Meanwhile, athletes of all genders have been irreparably scarred by anti-trans vitriol, and have been subjected to invasive testing and speculation regarding their sex.

A recent segment from “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver for example, featured the testimony of a young presmed-cis woman at an Arizona legislative hearing. She declared she had unfairly lost a softball tournament because the other team had a transgender player—potentially subjecting that student to bullying, violence and mass scrutiny about her “biological sex.”

The speaker was the child of the Alliance Defending Freedom’s CEO Oliver found, which is a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group.

Meanwhile, the rival athlete in question is not trans. “She’s just very good and has short hair,” said her coach, as per Oliver.