A newly formed state Senate committee will look to ensure that female athletes have the right to participate on an even basis with their males counterparts.

Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, the Senate’s presiding officer, announced Thursday the creation of the Georgia Senate Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports.

“We will not stand idly by while radical politicians, athletic associations, schools, and higher education institutions push policies threatening this right,” Jones said. “I created this committee to investigate policies athletic associations, schools, colleges, and universities have implemented regarding the protection of women’s sports.”

State policy makers already have been active on the issue. The Georgia High School Athletic Association’s executive committee voted two years ago to ban transgender athletes from participating on school sports teams that align with their gender identity rather than their birth gender.

The committee acted after the General Assembly’s Republican majorities passed election-year legislation authorizing the association to impose the transgender athletes ban.

Supporters argued that allowing transgender males to compete in girls’ sports gives them an unfair advantage over girls born female because transgender males tend to possess both greater strength and speed.

Legislative Democrats, transgender students and their parents countered that the policy discriminates against a group of students who already are victims of prejudice. They cited above-average suicide rates among transgender teens.

The new committee will include seven Republicans and two Democrats. The panel will have until Dec. 15 to issue findings and recommendations.

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.