GEOFF BENNETT: State and federal lawmakers today moved on several measures affecting young transgender people.
North Dakota's governor signed a bill banding -- banning gender-affirming treatment, including hormones, for anyone under the age of 18.
Meantime, the Democratic governor of Kansas vetoed a bill that would have done the same and imposed bathroom restrictions.
And, in Washington, House Republicans passed a ban on transgender girls playing in women's sports in school.
Senate Democrats are expected to block that from becoming law.
Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins reports on the politics at play.
REP. LISA MCCLAIN (R-MI): I think somebody needs to get a little bit of logic and sanity.
LISA DESJARDINS: In the centuries-old U.S. House, a modern divide.
WOMAN: Republicans care about girls.
LISA DESJARDINS: As the day started with a group of Republican women emphatically backing a ban on transgender girls in women's sports.
All sides realize the stakes here for young people and for politics.
REP. SARA JACOBS (D-CA): House Republicans make trans kids' participation in sport... LISA DESJARDINS: Intense House debate has been as if the two parties live on different planets.
REP. SARA JACOBS: Trans kids are kids.
They should be able to live full lives with unlimited opportunities, including playing sports.
REP. BRIAN MAST (R-FL): We're not talking about real women competing in women's sports.
We're talking about real boys, real men competing in women's sports.
LISA DESJARDINS: The House Republican bill is just two pages' long.
It's simple, banning federally funded schools, so most schools, from letting men play in women's sports and saying that sex shall be recognized based solely only on a person's reproductive biology at birth.
MAN: The House will come to order.
LISA DESJARDINS: It passed the House today on party lines.
The bill is already dead in the Senate, so it won't move forward, but it remains a major base issue on the right.
Conservatives point to the national collegiate title won by a transgender woman in swimming and to outcries from some, like a group of cisgender women in Connecticut, who sued over having to compete against transgender runners.
SELINA SOULE, Athlete: I was forced to compete against two biological... LISA DESJARDINS: Selina Soule, one of those suing, was at the Capitol today.
SELINA SOULE: I raced against these athletes over a dozen times, and they would beat me out by 20 meters in the 100-meter dash.
LISA DESJARDINS: In 2021, the Associated Press found cases like this are a minuscule minority, even as dozens of state legislatures proposed bills to restrict transgender Americans then, and there are even more bills like that now.
JAMIE BRUESEHOFF, Parent of Transgender Athlete: It is a terrifying time to be a parent of a transgender child.
Every day, things get worse.
LISA DESJARDINS: Jamie Bruesehoff is a mom of three whose 16-year-old daughter, Rebekah, is a star student and field hockey player.
She became an advocate when this photo of her in pink braids with a sign saying she was the transgender person people feared went viral.
REBEKAH BRUESEHOFF, Athlete: When you get like that good hit with the stick hitting the ball.
LISA DESJARDINS: She later joined a campaign for trans athletes.
REBEKAH BRUESEHOFF: You know the ball is going, you have got it, and you did good.
LISA DESJARDINS: And now has been repeatedly at the Capitol this year.
Rebekah's mom argues her daughter does not have an advantage and is not the best person on her team, but that she and other trans kids shouldn't face discrimination for something that is innate.
JAMIE BRUESEHOFF: When she went out into the world as herself, which just meant changing her name and pronouns at 8 years old, nothing else, she -- her joy exploded.
LISA DESJARDINS: At the Capitol, the issue has hit powerful cross sections of religion.
REP. GREG STEUBE (R-FL): Also in Matthew 19:4, at the beginning, the creator made them male and female.
LISA DESJARDINS: Of society.
REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): These bills tell some of the most vulnerable children in our country that they do not belong.
Shame on you.
LISA DESJARDINS: About how the parties see women.
REP. AARON BEAN (R-FL): We are in a battle for the very survival of women's sports.
LISA DESJARDINS: And which kids are vulnerable.
REP. MELANIE STANSBURY (D-NM): Now, let's be clear about what this bill actually is.
It's about legislating hate, in the name of advancing a political agenda.
LISA DESJARDINS: House Republicans walked out of the Capitol today celebrating.
Even though this bill won't become law, it will become part of their argument in the 2024 election.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.