Transgender sports ban
Indiana would join at least 11 other Republican-led states
banning transgender women and girls from school sports matching their gender identity if Holcomb signs the bill into law.
Hundreds of opponents attended Statehouse rallies and hearings, arguing the move is a bigoted response to a problem that doesn’t exist.
Republican sponsors of the bill said it was needed to protect the integrity of female sports and opportunities for girls to gain college athletic scholarships but pointed out no instances in the state of girls being outperformed by transgender athletes.
Holcomb told reporters recently that he hadn’t yet made a decision on the bill. Although he said he “adamantly” agrees that “boys should be playing boys sports and girls should be playing girls sports,” referring to a person’s gender at birth.
The governor also pointed to the Indiana High School Athletic Association, which already has a policy for transgender students, and says it has had no transgender girls finalize a request to play on a girls’ team.
Classroom clashes
A drive failed for state laws mandating that classroom materials be vetted by parent review committees and placing restrictions on teaching about racism and political topics. That followed a national conservative movement against teaching concepts in K-12 schools such as “critical race theory,” which has become a catch-all term for the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions.
Senate Republicans pulled their version of the proposal in January following widespread criticism after bill sponsor GOP Sen. Scott Baldwin of Noblesville said teachers must be “impartial” when discussing Nazism and other political ideologies, although he later walked back his comments.
House Republicans, however, forged ahead, endorsing a bill that included a prohibition on teaching that anyone should feel “discomfort” or “guilt” about their race, gender, religion or political affiliation.
The proposal faced broad opposition from teacher and education groups before it ultimately failed when enough Republican senators couldn’t agree on a version and Democrats were unified against it.
COVID-19 emergency
The buildup to this year’s legislative session started in November with a six-hour-long hearing during which many people aired grievances about proposed federal COVID-19 vaccination mandates, government-ordered lockdowns and mask requirements.
Later hearings brought out similar complaints as House Republicans sought to place broad limits on workplace vaccine requirements. But Holcomb and Senate Republicans sided with major business groups in opposing such steps.
The push faded by late February as the state also saw steep drops in new COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths from mid-January peaks fueled by the delta and omicron variants.
In the end, lawmakers approved Holcomb’s requests for administrative steps allowing the state to keep receiving enhanced federal funding for Medicaid and food assistance programs. Workplace vaccine limitations were largely limited to those already in federal law.
Holcomb signed the bill into law on March 3 and issued an order immediately ending the statewide public health emergency declaration. That was three days short of the two-year mark of when he first issued it and 13 days before the second anniversary of the state’s first recorded COVID-19 death — a number that now tops 23,000.