Washington (AFP) – US lawmakers advanced a bill Thursday aimed at banning transgender women and girls from sports teams that match their gender identity, as Congress turned its focus on one of the most polarizing issues in American culture. The "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act" seeks to narrow 50-year-old civil rights protections against sex-based discrimination to recognize sex as "based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth." The bill -- which conservatives say aims to promote fairness while safeguarding women -- was passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives education committee, teeing off what...