Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has signed a bill into law that prohibits biological males from competing in sports designated for females.

The state Senate officially delivered Senate Bill 354 to Hutchinson on Tuesday after the legislation passed both chambers with strong support.

In a statement shared with The Christian Post on Thursday, Hutchinson said: 

“ ... I have studied the law and heard from hundreds of constituents on this issue. I signed the law as a fan of women’s sports from basketball to soccer and including many others in which women compete successfully. This law simply says that female athletes should not have to compete in a sport against a student of the male sex when the sport is designed for women’s competition. As I have stated previously, I agree with the intention of this law. This will help promote and maintain fairness in women’s sporting events.”

Also known as the "Fairness in Women’s Sports Act," SB 354 states, in part, that any “interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic team or sport that is expressly designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex.”

The bill separates any sport “sponsored by a school” into the categories of male, female and coed, specifying that these three divisions will be “based on biological sex.”

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