Texas signs into law bill banning transgender athletes from school sports

• Bill is similar to orders in other Republican-controlled US states
• Trans rights advocates decry restrictions as discriminatory

Texas governor Greg Abbott on Monday signed into law a bill banning transgender girls from participating in female sports at public schools. The bill is part of a wave of similar measures emerging from Republican-controlled statehouses across the US.

Trans rights advocates decry such restrictions as discriminatory, hate"-based measures whose real purpose is to energize hard-core social conservatives. They say there is little or no evidence that trans women or girls are dominating sports.