Republican lawmakers in Indiana voted Tuesday to override the GOP governor’s veto of a bill banning transgender females from competing in girls school sports and join about more than a dozen other states adopting similar laws in the past two years.
State senators voted 32-15 in favor of overriding Gov. Eric Holcomb following the same action in a 67-28 vote by the House earlier in the day. Holcomb had said in his veto message that bill did not provide a consistent policy for what he called “fairness in K-12 sports” when he unexpectedly vetoed it in March.
Opponents have argued the bill is a bigoted response to a problem that doesn’t exist. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has said it intends to file a lawsuit against what it called “hateful legislation” in hopes of blocking it from taking effect as scheduled on July 1.
Republican sponsors of the bill maintain it is needed to protect the integrity of female sports and opportunities for girls to gain college athletic scholarships but have pointed out no instances in the state of girls being outperformed by transgender athletes.
Opponents have argued the bill is a bigoted response to a problem that doesn’t exist.
“(This measure) does not solve an issue. It does not bring people together. It does not benefit our state in any way,” Democratic Sen. J.D. Ford of Indianapolis said shortly before the Senate vote. “Why do you press upon the government to solve this issue, which there is no issue?”
Republican Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray said the state needs the policy and called it “a matter of simple fairness.”
“We don’t like to get to the state of Indiana sued, but it happens from time to time,” Bray said. “It’s a policy that I think we can stand behind.”
The veto override votes came during a special one-day meeting 11 weeks after this year’s regular legislative session ended. Democrats had called for lawmakers to take action, instead, on a proposal to suspend the state’s 56 cents per gallon in taxes on gasoline amid the nationwide spike in fuel prices. Republican disregarded that request.
House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta of Fort Wayne lamented that Republicans focused on divisive cultural issues that “won’t do anything to help move the state of Indiana forward.”
“Certainly, we have some pressing issues out there that are affecting Hoosiers every day, specifically, including the high price of gasoline that we’re seeing all over the state,” GiaQuinta said. “Wish we could have potentially used this day to better help Hoosiers.”
Activists held a rally against the ban ahead of the Legislature’s votes. Dozens of attendees, including several families with transgender youth, played sidewalk games around the Statehouse lawn. They argued that Indiana’s ban isn’t targeting elite athletes, but rather kids who want to play on a team with their friends.
“We’re here to stand against hate and discrimination that could have a lifelong impact for my family,” said Cara Nimskey, the mother of a transgender girl from Bloomington. “Sports are integral to adolescents. My daughter dreams of playing basketball in high school. It’s unfair exclusion—she’ll be crushed if this goes through.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has said it intends to file a lawsuit against what it called “hateful legislation” in hopes of blocking it from taking effect as scheduled on July 1.
Holcomb’s veto came a day before Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed a similar ban on grounds that such laws target vulnerable children who are already at high risk of suicide. Utah’s Republican lawmakers overrode the veto days later amid a wave of such laws that political observers describe as a classic “wedge issue” to motivate conservative supporters.
In his veto letter, Holcomb pointed to the Indiana High School Athletic Association, which has a policy covering transgender students wanting to play sports that match their gender identity and has said it has had no transgender girls finalize a request to play on a female team. The law wouldn’t prevent students who identify as female or transgender males from playing on boys sports teams.
Holcomb said in his veto message the bill presumed “there is an existing problem in K-12 sports in Indiana that requires further state government intervention” but that he found no evidence to support that claim “even if I support the effort overall.”
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Thanks goodness. Enough nonsense already. If you weren’t born a biological woman, you shouldn’t be competing against those who are….and vise versa.
Thank-you Kelly!
Excellent. About time the Repubs got a set and a backbone and stood up to our chief RINO in residence while he hob-nobs with the America-hating globalists at the World Economic Summit.
Quote from the above article: “We’re here to stand against hate and discrimination that could have a lifelong impact for my family,” said Cara Nimskey, the mother of a transgender girl from Bloomington. “Sports are integral to adolescents. My daughter dreams of playing basketball in high school. It’s unfair exclusion—she’ll be crushed if this goes through.”
Ridiculous. Hate isn’t an issue here, despite efforts to frame it as such. Don’t they have a Girl’s Basketball Team at her school? (But that was from The People’s Republic of Monroe County, so to be expected.)
And another: House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta of Fort Wayne lamented that Republicans focused on divisive cultural issues that “won’t do anything to help move the state of Indiana forward.”
“Certainly, we have some pressing issues out there that are affecting Hoosiers every day, specifically, including the high price of gasoline that we’re seeing all over the state,” GiaQuinta said. “Wish we could have potentially used this day to better help Hoosiers.”
Blah, blah, blah…yeah, Phil, how about calling “your” President and tell him to green-light energy policies that will bring down the price of gasoline…he’s the one who signed orders against them on his first day in office when he was given a stack of Executive Orders to sign, many of which he probably didn’t even read.
hateful.
A transgender girl is now prohibited from playing on the girls’ basketball team because of this bill. So saying she can just play on the “girls team,” completely misses the point of the legislation, or understanding who is impacted negatively by it.
Still don’t know what you’re talking about, Bob.
Today’s vote has nothing to do with fairness and everything about trying to make sure people who don’t live their lives to your approval are hidden from you… and punished for their choices. That’s what social conservatives are rejoicing about today, using the power of the government to make some people less equal.
Because the IHSAA policy was fair to all. It forced the transgendered to medically prove they didn’t have an advantage. A bar so high that literally no one in Indiana was able to cross it.
But that wasn’t enough for you or the Indiana legislature. You needed something to really stick it to those transgendered folks. You needed the state of Indiana to stick it to them, use the power of the government to make them feel worse, to make them feel wrong. You want them to repent, and since you can’t reach them like Jesus would, you’re just going to punish them like the Pharisees would.
Enjoy your victory. Just remember it came at the cost of someone else, someone you (and I) have been commanded to save.
Bob and Victoria, a transgender girl is a biological male. This “crushed” daughter can still play basketball with the sport that matches her biological gender: the boys’ team. Presuming “she” can qualify. If she does not qualify but would easily qualify for the girls’ team, she is unfairly eliminating a spot for a viable contender who was born female. It operates much the same way
It is indeed a shame that the party best known for limited government is forced to do the opposite in this instance. This is not a positive step for Republicans and it is very possible indeed that, as Joe B notes, the IHSAA rules would effectively disqualify most transgender athletes from playing on the team of their imagined sex. But it’s clear that the party of sexual libertinism is exploiting any and every absence of rules to subvert those rules, and this is an example that, contrary to an idpol politico like J.D. Ford, does in fact “bring people together”. Male and female, all races, old-school feminists and those second-wave feminists whose early 2000s are already “outdated”–all of them agree that transgendered people should compete in sports that match their biological sex.
In the case of transgendered women, they have an almost unparalleled advantage over biological females in almost all sports except maybe dressage or horse racing; being a small person is a huge advantage for jockeys.
In the case of transgendered men, even if testing helps determine that their elevated testosterone levels (through hormone therapy) are on par with biological males, it’s still not naturally occurring testosterone, and it is extremely legally difficult to distinguish from doping–the actions are the same.
I wish for the sake of legitimate advancements to the LGBTQ community that this wasn’t necessary. But without it, it’s not a matter of “if” women’s sports will effectively be completely delegitimized–it’s a matter of “when”.
Republicans were not forced to do anything. Again, even supporters of this bill admit that Indiana doesn’t have a problem with transgendered athletes. All the examples chosen are from college sports (which this bill exempts) or other states. The only transgendered person who even started the process to play high school sports bailed out before they got to submitting an application.
If there is not a problem, if this problem was solved by an IHSAA policy, why did Republicans act? Why did they “fix” a problem that doesn’t exist? The only logical reason is that they’re acting out of ignorance, hatred, and/or fear … and because their voters are suckers who fall for this nonsense.
If Republicans thought that the IHSAA was going to weaken their rules, something I have never heard discussed. they should have enshrined the IHSAA policy in law.
The reality is that hormone therapy doesn’t reduce muscle mass and bone density. A supporter of this bill quoted me all kind of statistics a few months ago on this front, oblivious to how he was making my point for me.
So the only transgendered people that would ever be eligible are the proverbial 98 pound weaklings who have the muscle mass and bone density of a girl from birth. That’s who we’re worried about, all four of them who are going to play sports? Spare me.
If the Indiana Legislature wants to stop problems before they occur, I wish they’d take the same approach with roads … I already spent my taxpayer refund check and then some getting a tire replaced.
I mis spoke.
Hormone therapy does reduce muscle mass and bone density, but not to the point where it eliminates the inherent advantage that a biological male has in both measures.
I regret the error.
So much for the Indiana GOP being the party of conservative, limited government. How about letting the IHSAA address the issue inside its rules of fair competition rather than playing the government overreach game? This is an overreach that is largely symbolic for the purposes of allowing Republicans feel better about themselves by (see above) having a “backbone” against the trans community. Want to know why young, educated people in their 20s are fleeing Indiana? See this veto override as just another in a long list of exhibits. See also David Ricks’ recent public comments on this subject as well. Sadly, today’s legislative action fits squarely inside Mr. Ricks’ concerned narrative.
Exactly.
So just because a man feels he’s a woman, does that automatically means he’s no longer a man? if the answer is no, then why not just get rid of everything that’s gender related? No more girls or boys anything, girls can compete against the best male athlete’s in the state in any sport, even boxing and football?
let me put this in prospective. The fastest woman 100m dash was ran by Florence Griffith Joyner, here in Indy btw.
The fastest s mens 100m ever, is held by Usain Bolt at 9.58.
Any logical person can see this is clearly not even an opinion but FACTS! How on earth is this fair? Its a biological fact that men and women are different, has nothing to do with can women do anything a man can but more to do with is there a true disadvantage between the two, regardless of what one identifies as?
Florence time was 10.49 btw
Are those dear “young, educated people in their 20s are fleeing Indiana” moving to places like California? This is the same paradigm we’ve been hearing for the last 20 years and it’s growing less persuasive by the day. I guess we could let the go to more “tolerant” places like Connecticut where female athletic records are getting shattered left and right because trans females are competing in sports and winning everything. Where does that leave biological females? Do they flee to more tolerant states where their sports leagues are getting completely overtaken by trans-women and if they dare to complain, they get doxxed? Very progressive.
This notion that transgendered people are an inherently disadvantaged, marginalized sub-group is only viable a) if transgenderism is an intrinsic feature like race or some other phenotype (it isn’t) and b) if transgendered people aren’t getting treated like uber-mensch by those who capitulate to their aggressive, often violent activism. But they are getting treated like uber-mensch, because half of these trans-athletes were competing as mediocre biological males just a few years ago. They grow their hair out, change their name to Lia or Mathilda, and voila–half the country caters to their every need.
We have to find the middle ground between dealing with a genuine mental illness (gender dysphoria) and not capitulating to people who use this as a power play. This law is an unfortunate step that, until a better solution comes along, is probably necessary to keep women’s sport from turning into a complete farce the way it already has in Connecticut.
What an absolute garbage strawman argument. Indiana had a middle ground – a scientifically-based policy that gave both sides what they wanted. It just got blown up by Indiana Republicans.
Could the transgendered participate? Sure, if they leapt over an incredibly high bar designed to ensure they didn’t have an unfair advantage, thereby protecting those with daughters (like me).
Even the JD Ford’s of the world were not complaining about the IHSAA policy. I’d advise you to read it.
https://myihsaa-prod-ams.azurewebsites.net/api/resource-library/categories/07d0f399-73b3-421c-a407-08d5e7b1cb1f/documents/94d527da-68e3-4f23-734b-08d7b55fcb06/file
World’s greatest female athlete supports legislation like this .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twd5cE_-rFQ
I don’t understand why folks are in denial on these topics. So would it be fair if Mike Tyson decided he was a woman one day and wanted to make a come back in women boxing, is that fair? Or what if men who couldnt make it in the NBA decide they wanted to identify as a woman and try out for the WNBA? this is nonsense
Kevin, that’s why the IHSAA had a policy that required the transgendered to prove they didn’t have more muscle mass or bone density than the gender they were competing against.
A policy so stringent no one ever was cleared to compete under it. They had this policy for many, many years and testified about it when this law was proposed.
So, explain to me why Indiana needed a law. No one ever has been able to. Good luck.
Republicans are disgusting.
What’s the best way to give a lap dance to a kindergartner, alex? Their laps are just so small!