Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed SB 2536 banning transgender students from women's and girls' school sports
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signed SB 2536, the "Mississippi Fairness Act," on March 11, 2021, barring transgender students from competing on women's and girls' sports teams at the state's public K-12 schools and universities. The bill designates those teams as not "open to students of the male sex" without establishing how sex is determined or how eligibility disputes are resolved. It was the first anti- transgender law enacted in the United States that year.
Actors
On March 11, 2021, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signed SB 2536, known as the Mississippi Fairness Act, making Mississippi the first state to enact anti-transgender legislation that year. The law bars transgender students from competing on women's and girls' interscholastic sports teams at public K-12 schools and public universities, designating those teams as not "open to students of the male sex" without establishing a process for determining sex or resolving eligibility disputes. The bill passed the Mississippi House 81-28 and the Senate 34-9 before Reeves signed it.
The law was among the first in a wave of state-level transgender-athlete sports bans enacted in subsequent years, several of which are separately recorded in this archive. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, condemned the measure as discriminatory legislation targeting transgender youth.
Why we recorded this
Equal treatment under law bars government from categorically excluding people from public institutions based on their identity absent individualized justification. Mississippi's SB 2536 barred transgender students from public school and university sports teams matching their gender identity, using a fixed sex classification with no process for individualized review. This archive records when state governments enact blanket exclusions targeting transgender people from public educational programs.
Sources
- Mississippi governor signs bill banning transgender students from women's sports, approving first anti-trans law of 2021 — CNN primary accessed July 18, 2026
- BREAKING: First Anti-Trans Bill of 2021 Signed Into Law By Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves — Human Rights Campaign secondary accessed July 18, 2026
See also
- Mississippi enacted HB1125 banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors and revoking providers' licenses
- Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed SB 2753 requiring birth-sex-based restrooms and housing in public schools and universities
- Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed HB 188 mandating correctional-facility housing and restroom segregation by sex assigned at birth
- Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed HB 1193 banning DEI programs and barring instruction on transgender identity and gender theory in public schools
- Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed SB 2114 directing state police to compile a registry of undocumented residents and criminalizing unlawful presence
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