CAPITOL HILL POLITICS (Washington Insider Magazine) – A law prohibiting transgender females from partaking in girls’ school sports was vetoed by Indiana’s governor on Monday.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana said it prepared a lawsuit against what it termed “hateful legislation” by critics of the transgender sports bill, claiming it was a discriminatory solution to a non-existent problem.
The bill’s Republican backers argued it was necessary to safeguard the integrity of female athletics and opportunities for females to earn college athletic scholarships, but they pointed out that transgender athletes have never outperformed girls in the state.
Last month, Republican Governor Eric Holcomb expressed support for the measure, but in his veto statement, he stated that the law “falls short” of having an uniform statewide policy for “fairness in K-12 sports.”
According to ABC NEWS, the governor sat on the sidelines while legislators discussed the subject and reached his choice only before his Tuesday deadline to vote.
On the rejection of the transgender sports bill, Holcomb cited the Indiana High School Athletic Association, which has a guideline protecting transgender kids who wish to participate in sports that match their gender identification and has stated that no transgender females have filed a request to participate on a girls team.
With simple majority in both the Senate and the House, Indiana lawmakers may overturn the governor’s veto. A veto override vote might take place as early as May 24, when legislature leaders are planning a one-day meeting.
The Indiana bill would make it illegal for male K-12 students who identify as female to participate in a sport and on an athletic team that is specifically for women or girls. Students who register as female or transgender men, on the other hand, would be able to participate in men’s athletics teams.
Following the governors of South Dakota and Iowa signing their prohibitions in recent weeks, 11 more Republican-led states have passed similar legislation, which political watchers describe as a typical “wedge issue” to excite conservative voters.
Holcomb’s veto comes 7 years after a nationwide outrage over then-Gov. Mike Pence’s signing of a religious objections statute that opponents claimed might be used to discriminate against lesbians and gays. The Republican-controlled Legislature promptly amended the bill to stop it from being used as a legal justification for rejecting to deliver services and to prevent it from overpowering local LGBT protection ordinances.
With the transgender girls sports ban, Democrats said Republican legislators were pursuing a nationwide conservative “culture war.”
