Michigan House holds Jocelyn Benson in contempt, votes to ban trans athletes

• Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was voted in civil contempt of the state House after she declined to provide a committee with some election documents
• Benson later told reporters she welcomes a legal challenge
• The House also passed legislation that would ban transgender girls from playing in girls high school sports

Michigan House Republicans passed legislation on Thursday that would ban transgender girls from playing in girls high school sports and voted to hold Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in civil contempt over a dispute over election training documents. 

 The Republican-led House passed bills Thursday almost entirely along party lines restricting transgender participation in school sports, eliciting protest from Democrats. 

The bills would require public schools that participate in sports to only allow girls assigned that sex at birth to play on girls-only teams. The legislation would still allow co-ed or mixed-sex sports. Girls and transgender boys would not be banned from playing boy’s sports.

Even if the bills were to somehow become law — which is highly unlikely given Democratic control of the Senate — they would have little impact on high school athletics.

The Michigan High School Athletic Association, which coordinates interscholastic sports in Michigan, told Bridge Michigan this spring that only two transgender athletes competed in fall sports in Michigan, and “none sought waivers for winter or spring sports,” MHSAA spokesperson Geoff Kimmerly said.

Supporters argue the issue is about fairness. 

“When puberty kicks in, girls would never have a chance to compete or win in athletics,” state Rep. Jennifer Wortz, a Quincy Republican, said. “There's no way around the fact that boys are stronger and faster than girls.”

State Rep. Matt Koleszar, a Plymouth Democrat, called the legislation “state-sanctioned bullying.”

RELATED: 

• Michigan Republicans aim to ban gender-affirming medication, surgery for minors
• Michigan transgender youths to continue high school sports, despite Trump order
• Michigan House GOP to subpoena Jocelyn Benson for election training docs

In 2023, Michigan expanded the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Right Act to include protections for LGBTQ Michiganders, and one of the two bills passed Thursday would make a carve-out in that law to exempt school sports from those protections. 

That bill earned one Democratic vote, from state Rep. Amos O’Neal of Saginaw. 

House holds Benson in contempt

The Michigan House also voted along party lines to hold Benson in civil contempt in an effort to force Benson to hand over election materials she said can’t be publicly disclosed for election security reasons.

The resolution was the latest chapter in a months-long saga of the House Oversight Committee’s back-and-forth with Benson’s Department of State. 

The committee had subpoenaed Benson’s office in April for all election training materials provided to local election officials, but Benson declined to provide some, arguing releasing them to the committee without guarantees of confidentiality would harm the state’s election security. 

In a media conference this morning, state Rep. Jay DeBoyer, the Clay Republican who chairs the committee, said that, “by statute and by constitution, we're entitled to have” all the election materials and having to file suit to get them “is a continued demonstration of lawlessness” on Benson’s part.

The House, after passing the resolution, will have to pursue litigation in court to try to get a judicial order compelling Benson to divulge the materials.

Benson accused House Republicans of “playing political games to try to gain headlines and look tough, but really just coming across as a bully.

Benson called the chamber’s actions “an affront to the people they are elected to serve.”

Benson said her department had striven to comply with the House subpoena but needed more time to review sensitive materials for release and welcomed a legal challenge.

“You cannot bully me or use your authority to get access to information that, if it ends up in the wrong hands, could be used to interfere with the chain of custody of ballots, tamper with election equipment or impersonate a clerk on election day,” Benson said. “I have a sworn duty to protect that information.”