Republican super PAC twists Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s votes on transgender athletes

The Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate Republicans’ political action committee, is using a series of ads to hammer Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, for supporting transgender people.

"My granddaughters have worked hard to excel in sports," a man identified as Scott F. from Concord, Ohio, says in one ad, over images from a California junior college of a transgender woman basketball player. "It's tough enough, so the idea that Sherrod Brown allowed transgender biological men to compete in girls’ sports, it’s unfair and dangerous." We identified the speaker in the ad as a member of the Riverside, Ohio, school board.

The ad cited Brown’s 2021 and 2024 votes against failed amendments to two broad funding bills as evidence for the claim. 

But the Senate Leadership Fund ad mischaracterizes Brown’s votes. The amendments would have stripped federal funding from schools and colleges that allowed transgender girls and women to compete in sports matching their gender identity. They did not dictate athletic eligibility. Federal law rarely dictates who is eligible for specific sports.

Senate Leadership Fund Communications Director Torunn Sinclair said the amendments from Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., hinged school funding on whether transgender women were allowed to compete in sports matching their gender identity.

"You're funding something, which is a vote to allow something to happen," Sinclair said in an email.

Ohio and 25 other states have laws or regulations barring transgender athletes from competing in sports matching their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank that focuses on LGBTQ+ rights and voting access. 

The Senate Leadership Fund ad cites Brown’s votes on March 6, 2021, and March 22, 2024, as evidence that Brown, who generally supports LGBTQ+ rights, voted to allow transgender athletes in girls’ sports.

Featured Fact-check

Kari Lake

stated on September 13, 2024 in a post on X

Rep. Ruben Gallego’s “first act in Congress was to propose legislation to BAN the use of the term ‘illegal alien.’”

Brown spokesperson Matt Keyes described both votes as "poison pill" amendments — designed to render legislation ineffective — to broader funding bills. Tuberville’s amendments were to the 2021 American Rescue Plan and a 2024 bill funding multiple federal departments. Both failed along party lines.

Keyes said Brown supports transgender rights, but Brown’s vote also was to preserve Ohio school funding.

Brown "believes there should be a fair process in place for athletics and will always fight to make sure Ohio schools have the funding they need," Keyes said.

U.S. high school sports are decentralized; each state typically makes its own rules about who can participate. Federal law addresses compensation, amateur status, antitrust or other civil issues rather than who is, or is not, allowed to participate. 

Governing bodies, such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, determine who is allowed to participate in specific competitions.

Some federal laws, such as Title IX, prohibit sex-based discrimination for programs receiving federal funding, which includes nearly all public schools, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. President Joe Biden unveiled new rules in April that cover gender identity under Title IX, though the rules did not specifically address the issue of transgender athletes in sports.

The Senate Leadership Fund said Brown "voted to allow transgender biological men to compete in girls’ sports."

Brown did not vote to allow this. He voted against two amendments to much broader spending bills that would have stripped funding from schools that allowed transgender athletes to compete in sports matching their gender identity. The amendments did not pertain to athletic eligibility.

We rate the claim False.