Two Republican governors vetoed bills targeting trans women. Their legislatures will try to override them

Republican state legislators in two deep red states will try to pass bills banning transgender girls from participating in high school women’s sports leagues and events, over the objections of governors from their own parties.

The top leaders of the state House and Senate in both Utah and Indiana said they would hold votes in attempts to override vetos issued this week by Govs. Spencer Cox (R) and Eric Holcomb (R), respectively.

Holcomb vetoed the Indiana bill Monday, pointing to likely legal action to come. He said in a message to legislators that he saw no evidence that transgender girls participating in women’s sports was causing harm to his state.

Cox followed Holcomb’s lead on Tuesday, formally vetoing his state’s measure after promising to do so for several weeks. He pointed to the four transgender athletes playing high school sports in Utah, only one of whom is participating in girls’ sports — and the overwhelming number of transgender youth who report feeling suicidal or attempting suicide.

“That’s what all of this is about. Four kids who aren’t dominated or winning trophies or taking scholarships. 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 wrote. “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.”

Legislators in both states said they would attempt to override the vetoes nonetheless.

“The fundamental goal of this legislation is to protect competition in girls’ sports, and House Republicans will vote to override this veto when lawmakers meet again on May 24. This issue continues to be in the national spotlight and for good reason as women have worked hard for equal opportunities on the playing field – and that’s exactly what they deserve,” Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston (R) said in a statement.

In Utah, House Speaker Brad Wilson said he expected to have the votes to override Cox.

“Ultimately, the Legislature recognizes the value of girls athletics and our members want to ensure girls have the level playing field to compete that was created by Title IX,” Wilson said in his own statement.

Cox and Holcomb are outliers among a peer group of Republican governors who have approved bans on transgender girls playing women’s sports. The governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia have all signed bills passed by their respective legislatures over the last year.

Those bills are among the dozens introduced in legislatures this year targeting transgender youth to some degree.

The most extreme bill, which passed the Idaho House earlier this year, would have made it a felony to provide health care — including medication — to transgender youth, or to help a transgender child travel to another state to receive medical care. That bill died when the state Senate, also controlled by Republicans, declined to take it up.