Most Democrats in the U.S. Senate voted on Monday against legislation to protect the sanctity of women’s sports, though Michigan’s junior senator didn’t bother to take a stance.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., was one of only four U.S. senators who did not vote on a motion to proceed with the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, despite her previous opposition to similar measures.

Slotkin did not explain why she declined to vote, opting instead to spend Monday promoting her upcoming Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress scheduled for Tuesday.

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Michigan’s senior Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Twp., was a “Nay” on the legislation, which was ultimately shot down with a vote of 51-45 along party lines. The measure needed 60 votes to advance to a debate.

“Around the country we have seen men — biological men who identify as women — take up spaces and medals in athletics meant for actual women,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told The Associated Press. “This is a matter of fairness and equality.”

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, sponsored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., seeks to define Title IX protections “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth,” essentially codifying an executive order issued by Trump last month.

The effort is focused on stamping out the Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to expand Title IX protections to include gender identity in the federal civil rights law. The act would also ban recipients of federal funding from operating or facilitating athletic programs that allow biologically males to compete in women’s sports.

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In December, the Biden-Harris administration withdrew its proposed rule to force schools to allow males in women’s sports, and a federal judge in Kentucky has struck down Biden’s broader Title IX rule, which has faced lawsuits from more than a dozen states.

A House version of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act cleared the Republican controlled lower chamber in January on a vote of 218-206, with all Republicans and two Democrats in support.

U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Grand Rapids, and all other Democrats in Michigan’s Congressional Delegation voted against the bill.

“An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that men don’t belong in women’s sports and that we must allow common sense to prevail,” Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who introduced the bill, said in January.

More than half of voters polled by AP VoteCast – 120,000 in all 50 states – believe “support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far,” including majorities by race, age, gender, location, religion, and other demographics.

Another poll of 2,128 American adults conducted by Ipsos on behalf of The New York Times found similar results, with 79% who believe biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports.

In his Inaugural Address, President Donald Trump declared “it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” garnering a thunderous applause.

The 47^th POTUS followed up with an executive order in January titled Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, which states it’s “the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.

“It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth,” it reads.

The change prompted the NCAA to change its policy for transgender athletes, while others have vowed to defy the president.

In Michigan, the Michigan High School Athletic Association announced it has no plans to comply with Trump’s EO, and would proceed with policy that allows biological males to secure a waiver to play women’s sports.

“We’re just waiting for the next step I suppose,” MHSAA spokesman Geoff Kimmerly told Bridge Michigan, noting conflicts between the EO and Michigan’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which Democrats amended in 2023 to include gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes.

“Obviously there’s a conflict here, and it’s going to have to be worked out one way or another,” he said.

The plan for now, Kimmerly said, is “to continue to go with our policy as is” until there’s “more clarification” on the law.

Michigan Superintendent Michael Rice is also advising school leaders to disregard the Trump’s Title IX.

Rice argued in a Feb. 13 memo that schools must follow Michigan’s Elliott-Larson Civil Rights Act, if it conflicts with federal Title IX law.

“Neither a presidential executive order nor federal regulations, whether related to federal funding or not, can supersede or otherwise set aside our obligation to comply with a validly enacted state anti-discrimination law,” Rice wrote. “State civil rights law remains the law.”

Political observers at The Detroit News point to the Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution that suggests otherwise.

Regardless, at least four of Michigan’s public school districts face federal complaints that allege their policies on gender identity violate civil rights outlined in Title IX, potentially putting their federal funding at risk.

Rochester Community Schools, Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, Hartland Consolidated Schools and Mt. Pleasant Public Schools all “have policies that do not protect the rights of young women in bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams,” Matthew Wilk, attorney and president of Get Kids Back to School, told The Detroit News columnist Kaitlyn Buss.

Wilk filed a complaint against Plymouth-Canton schools last week, and “there are more coming,” he said.

In the meantime, the Trump administration is already working to crack down on state and local policies that seemingly defy Title IX, with investigations ongoing in Maine and five northern Virginia school districts.