Arizona passed bills Thursday preventing transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports and minors from receiving gender transition surgery. They’ve become the latest state in the expanding coalition of Republican-led governments to have passed such measures protecting women and children.
There is uncertainty as to whether Governor Doug Ducey will sign the bills. While he is a Republican, that doesn’t necessarily mean he will sign the bills into law, considering that the Republican governors of Utah and also Indiana lately vetoed their versions of the sporting activities legislation. Unfortunately in Arizona, the GOP majority is insufficient to override his veto as happened in Utah.
Prohibiting transgender professional athletes from women’s sports has become a major Republican platform issue. Numerous red states have passed bills limiting K-12 and also collegiate athletics to biological sex. Idaho was the very first to do so in 2020, however, its regulation is currently entrenched in lawsuits, as is West Virginia’s.
In Texas, Governor Gregg Abbott has actually brought investigations against clinical providers and parents who make it possible for children to be transitioned through surgical treatments. That followed Texas Attorney General Paxton launched a lengthy memo expressing the child’s liberty interest in procreation, mentioning that depriving a kid of that by permitting them to effectively sterilize themselves constitutes youngster abuse.
It’s on the GOP’s radar again considering that last weekend’s NCAA women’s championship, where transgender swimmer Lia Thomas soundly outperformed and out-placed numerous biological female athletes, preventing at the very least one from advancing to finals.
“This bill to me is all about biology,” Republican Representative Shawnna Bolick, who had experience playing high college womens’ sports, told the Associated Press. “In my opinion, it’s unfair to allow biological males to compete with biological girls sports.”
As for outlawing gender reconstructive surgical procedures, Arizona is among 20 states that have put such a bill on the table. Originally, Arizona’s bill forbade all sex shift treatments, including hormonal therapy, however, was changed to be limited to permanent surgical treatments, such as mastectomies.
Some Republicans in the Arizona legislature explained that the bill was required to stop children from succumbing to the social contagion of transgenderism that may cause them to go through treatments they might be sorry for when they’re older.
Republican Representative John Kavanagh said, “We should stand the same way today because this is mutilation of children. It is irreversible. It is horrific.”
