Utah governor vetoes ban on trans students playing girls’ sports
The Utah governor, Spencer Cox, vetoed a ban on transgender students playing girls’ sports on Tuesday, becoming the second Republican governor to overrule state lawmakers who have taken on youth sports as part of a political debate over how Americans view gender and sexuality.
Cox joins the Indiana governor. Eric Holcomb, who vetoed a statewide ban on Monday. Holcomb said Indiana’s legislature had not demonstrated that transgender kids had undermined fairness in sports.
“I struggle to understand so much of it and the science is conflicting. When in doubt however, I always try to err on the side of kindness, mercy and compassion,“Cox wrote in a letter to Utah legislative leaders.
The vetoes come as Cox and Holcomb’s counterparts in nearly a dozen conservative-leaning states have enacted similar legislation and politicians have honed in on transgender kids in sports as a campaign issue in states ranging from Missouri to Pennsylvania.
The issue was one of the most contentious of the year in a state where most lawmakers are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and respectful politics are prized as “The Utah Way”. Deeply conservative leaders and LGBTQ+ advocates have brokered compromises to advance rights and protections in the past. But not this time.
There are four transgender players out of 85,000 who are competing in school sports after being ruled eligible by the state’s high school athletic association. There are no public concerns about competitive advantages. Only one competes in girls’ sports.
“Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are a part of something. Four kids trying to get through each day,“Cox said in the letter explaining his veto, in which he cited suicide rates for transgender youth. “Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. I don’t understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live.“
Banning transgender kids from competition, their advocates argue, would have little impact on sports but would send a wider, deeply painful message to already vulnerable kids that they don’t belong in an important piece of American school culture.
But supporters of a ban argue, amid growing transgender visibility, more players could soon be in girls leagues around the country and eventually dominate and change the nature of girls sports.
Eleven states have enacted laws banning transgender girls from playing in leagues corresponding with their gender identity – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
Lawmakers in at least 12 other states are considering some form of a ban on transgender student-athletes in youth sports, according to a tally from the National Conference of State Legislatures.