The details of a disagreement between two legislators are disputed, but both agree that a conflict arose in February over a bill aiming to ban men from women’s sports in Michigan.

It’s a case of he-said, she-said.

Reps. Jason Woolford, R-Howell, and Carrie Rheingans, D-Ann Arbor, concur that they engaged in a dispute focused on Woolford’s House Bill 4066. If passed, the bill would prevent public school boys from participating in competitive girls’ sports. However, in separate conversations with The Midwesterner, the pair differ greatly in their specific recollections of the events that transpired that day.

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“I was in my office in the House of Representatives building,” Woolford said. “You have a front desk and a back desk, and I’m in the very back, and my door was open. I had heard someone come into the office, and they were breathing heavily; their voice was a little erratic. This person had mentioned that they were one of the House Republicans, a representative on the Republican side.”

Woolford continued: “She demanded to see a copy of the bill regarding keeping boys and men out of women’s and girls’ sports, and because of her voice inflections, I got concerned. So I approached the front desk and asked, ‘Could you remind me who you are again?’ I heard her mention that she was a Republican legislator. She said she wouldn’t answer the question, and I said, ‘Well? What can we do for you?’”

Woolford described Rheingans as “extremely forceful” when she asked to read the bill and explained she was considering co-sponsoring it. At that point, he told her he recognized her as a Democratic legislator and called her by her full name.

“That’s when she got very abrupt and started screaming, ‘Are you going to be the one that checks my daughter’s genitals?’ Woolford said. “She just kept repeating it to the point that we had to call the sergeants at the House of Representatives building. As soon as we started to put her on speaker, she finally exited the office.”

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In an email to The Midwesterner, Rheingans related an entirely different version of events.

“On February 11th, Rep. Woolford put out a press release for his first bill, HB 4066,” she wrote. “I received a phone call from a colleague asking if I had seen the bill language, which I hadn’t.”

As background, Rheingans explained: “Typically, colleagues email the entire legislature a co-sponsorship memo detailing what their legislation does and asking if members would like to co-sponsor it and sometimes attach the bill language for review. I decided to just walk down the hall and ask Rep. Woolford directly if he had a copy of the bill, so I could read it and understand how it would operate.”

Rheingans continued that she first encountered legislative aide Jason Dempsey when she entered Woolford’s office.

“I walked in and saw Rep. Woolford’s staffer at the front desk,” Rheingans continued. “I said, ‘Hi, I’m a Rep from down the hall. Do you have a copy of Rep. Woolford’s bill that I can read?’ At which point, Rep. Woolford came out of his office and asked who I was. I told him I was ‘a Rep from down the hall.’”

She said she asked Woolford if she could review the text of the bill and added that she told him that she had not received a co-sponsorship email from his office that would explain “how the bill would work.”

According to Rheingans, after Rep. Woolford asked if she wanted to co-sponsor the bill, “I then reiterated that I was there to read the text of the bill.”

At this point, Rheingans said she told Woolford she was concerned about her second-grade daughter playing sports.

According to her, Woolford responded: “Oh yeah, we’re really concerned about protecting girls’ sports.”

She added: “I then asked a clarification question, inquiring about who would enforce this ban on trans children in sports. Rep. Woolford looked confused by my question, so I then asked him if he would be the one inspecting my daughter’s genitals to determine if she could continue to play second-grade soccer or if it would be another elected official or some other entity to do the enforcement.”

Rheingans said the incident concluded after “Rep. Woolford started sputtering at his staffer to call the sergeants, and he demanded to know my name. I told him I was the Rep from four doors down and immediately left his office before any phone calls had been completed.”

Rheingans concluded: “I know my constituents, like Rep. Woolford’s, are really worried about how to deal with rising costs, which are only about to be made worse by tariffs. Too many Michiganders are being forced to decide between paying for their prescriptions or their housing. Seeing working families’ struggles, Rep. Woolford and Michigan Republicans are laser-focused only on issues like preventing the grand total of zero trans girls currently enrolled in Michigan winter and spring high school sports from participating.”

Both Woolford and Dempsey, who concurred with Woolford’s version of events in a separate conversation with The Midwesterner, disagree with Rheingans’ description of the events.

“She did not respect my front desk, our constituent services, and me,” Woolford said. “We were very kind, very polite. We told her we would send her a copy of the bill; of course, none was good enough. That’s when she started screaming, ‘Are you going to be the one to check my daughter’s genitals?’ It was just very loud or very erratic. Her face was red, she was being disrespectful and just kept repeating over and over the question about checking her daughter’s genitals.”