Utah Governor Vetoes Transgender Sports Ban
letter announcing his veto that while “politically, it would be much easier and better for me to simply sign the bill,” he chose to veto it because he “tried to do what I feel is the right thing regardless of the consequences.”“I believe in fairness and protecting the integrity of women’s sports,” Cox said in his letter. “…Unfortunately, HB11 has several fundamental flaws and should be reconsidered.
Because the bill was substantially changed in the final hours of the legislative session with no public input and in a way that will likely bankrupt the Utah High School Athletic Association and result in millions of dollars in legal fees for local school districts with no state protection, and for several other reasons below, I have chosen to veto this bill.”Cox had previously vowed to veto the bill after social conservatives in the legislature pushed through a radically altered bill that imposed an across-the-board ban on transgender athletes participating in female-designated sports.
The last-minute changes took many by surprise, prompting several Republican lawmakers to break party lines and vote against the bill.Cox and several other Republicans had previously pinned their hopes on a “compromise” measure, sponsored by Rep.
Kera Birkeland (R-Morgan), which sought to avoid a full-scale ban on transgender athletes by requiring athletes to appear before a seven-person commission to determine their eligibility, based on their personal physical characteristics, to compete on sports teams matching their gender identity.
