Utah legislature votes to override Gov. Cox’s veto of transgender sports ban

The Utah Legislature voted Friday to override Republican Gov. Spencer Cox’s veto of a measure that might stop transgender ladies from collaborating in feminine sports activities in colleges throughout the state.

In a 56-18 vote with a supermajority wanted, the Republican-controlled Home first voted to override Cox’s veto. Shortly after, the Senate gave ultimate approval to override the veto by a vote of 21-8.

In a statement relating to his veto of H.B. 11, titled Scholar Eligibility in Interscholastic Actions, Cox stated that whereas “politically, it will be a lot simpler and higher for me to easily signal the invoice,” he vetoed it as a result of he “tried to do what I really feel is the correct factor whatever the penalties.”

4 GOP lawmakers from every legislative physique modified their preliminary votes in opposition to the measure to be able to assist the override, in line with Utah’s Deseret Information.

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At the very least one GOP lawmaker within the Home who voted in opposition to the measure, state Rep. Mike Winder, didn’t change his stance. He selected to not vote to override Cox’s veto.

“As a fiscal conservative, I can not vote for a invoice to throw away tax {dollars} in a shedding lawsuit or to value the state in financial alternatives all whereas solely serving as a message of hate whereas being mired in court docket. I agree [with Cox]. Utah can do higher,” Winder wrote in a tweet Thursday.

Protesters maintain indicators earlier than the 2022 NCAA Division I ladies’s swimming and diving championship on the McAuley Aquatic Middle on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Know-how March 17, 2022, in Indianapolis.
(Justin Casterline/Getty Photographs)

State Rep. Kera Birkeland, the invoice’s Republican sponsor, stated the invoice is “purely” about “preserving ladies’s sports activities” and warned that when “we don’t act, and we simply go along with the established order, we simply do extra hurt to each transgender youth and girls athletes.”

The Utah Jazz, the state’s NBA workforce, launched a statement following the legislature’s override.

“The Utah Jazz oppose discriminatory laws. We’re dedicated to our values of inclusivity, mutual respect and truthful play,” the assertion stated. “Past basketball, we hope for an equitable resolution that exhibits love and compassion for all our youth.”

Comparable measures have been launched in different states, a few of which have voted to bar transgender college students from collaborating in feminine faculty sports activities.

Republican Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb 
(Ting Shen/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs)

Earlier this week, Indiana Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb additionally vetoed a invoice that might have prevented transgender females from participating in feminine sports activities, claiming the measure “leaves too many unanswered questions” and questioning the necessity for intervention at a state stage.