Kentucky’s Democrat Governor Andy Beshear vetoed a GOP-backed bill on Wednesday that would ban biologically male transgender professional athletes from getting involved on women’s sports teams from sixth grade through college.
The bill stipulates that a trainee’s “biological sex” on their birth certification establishes whether the student may join female or male sports. The Kentucky Senate passed the bill 26-9 on March 24, while the state House accepted the bill 70-23 in a vote earlier that month.
However, in a veto message to lawmakers, Beshear stated that the Kentucky High School Athletics Association’s current transgender policy currently gives sufficient assistance for the concern. Beshear noted that under KHSAA regulations a transgender trainee professional athlete should take hormonal therapy “to minimize gender-related advantages in competition” and also should contend according to the gender on their birth certificate if they quit taking hormone therapy. Beshear did not acknowledge the fact that organic men keep various physical benefits also after undergoing hormone therapy.
The bill does not present “a single instance in Kentucky of a child gaining a competitive advantage as a result of sex reassignment,” Beshear created. Additionally, the Governor said the bill likely breaches the Constitution’s equal protection clause.
Governor Andy Beshear vetoes SB 83, the bill than bans trans girls from playing on girls sports teams. @LEX18News
Here is his veto message: pic.twitter.com/ADBprrwL2B
— Karolina Buczek (@Karolina_Buczek) April 6, 2022
Republican state senator Robby Mills, who funded the legislation, claimed the bill “thinks ahead” to block possible instances of unjust competition.
“It would be crushing for a young lady to train her whole career to have it end up competing against a biological male in the state tournament or state finals,” Mills said in a debate on the bill.
The Kentucky legislature might do something about it to override the guv’s veto. Thirteen various other states have passed comparable legislation into legislation, most recently Oklahoma.
Beshear’s specified issues regarding the regulations resembled veto messages from Republican Governors Spencer Cox of Utah as well as Eric Holcomb of Indiana concerning similar bills in their states. Cox and also Holcomb both stated there weren’t adequate instances of unreasonable competitors to validate the bills, as well as also warned of potential suits that can make the regulation non-active.
The Utah legislature successfully overrode Cox’s veto on March 25.
H/T National Review
