Kluwe was arrested during a city council meeting in February

Chris Kluwe, a former NFL punter who was recently thrust into the national spotlight after he was arrested at a California city council meeting, voiced his support for lawmakers who blocked the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act from moving forward in the Senate.

Republican lawmakers failed to get the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.

Not a single Senate Democrat voted in favor of the bill. Two Republicans and two Democrats were absent from the vote.

Ex-NFL punter Chris Kluwe at podium

Kluwe, who played for the Minnesota Vikings his entire career, reacted in a post on BlueSky.

“I support and am happy the party came together to stop this,” Kluwe wrote. “However, this is what they should be doing on EVERYTHING. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it – we are in an existential crisis as a country. We’re either going to emerge as Americans, or as something else.”

Chris Kluwe looks up

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act would require Title IX to treat gender as “recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth” and would disallow any adjustment for it to apply to gender identity.

The bill was introduced by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and has more than 40 co-sponsors in the Senate. It would also codify one of Trump’s many recent executive orders, giving the policy better longevity.

Chris Kluwe at a luncheon

President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month to prohibit biological males from competing in women’s and girls sports. The order would withhold federal funding from states that continue to allow transgender inclusion in women’s and girls sports.