2 GOP Governors Veto Transgender Sports Bans

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed a ban on transgender students playing girls’ sports on Tuesday, becoming the second Republican governor this week to overrule state lawmakers taking on youth sports amid broader culture wars as LGBTQ visibility grows. Cox joins Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, who vetoed a statewide ban on Monday. Holcomb said Indiana's Legislature had not demonstrated that transgender kids had undermined fairness in sports. Cox, for his part, referenced the potential effects on transgender youth, the AP reports. "I struggle to understand so much of it and the science is conflicting. When in doubt however, I always try to err on the side of kindness, mercy, and compassion," Cox wrote in a letter to Utah legislative leaders

The vetoes come as Cox and Holcomb's counterparts in nearly a dozen conservative-leaning states have enacted similar legislation and politicians have honed in on transgender kids in sports as a campaign issue in states ranging from Missouri to Pennsylvania. In Utah, minutes after the veto, legislative leaders announced plans to convene on Friday to discuss overriding Cox. The Utah ban was introduced on Friday, less than four hours before lawmakers were set to adjourn for the session, upending a year of negotiations over alternative requirements framed as a compromise.

There are four transgender players out of 85,000 who are competing in school sports after being ruled eligible by Utah’s high school athletic association. Only one competes in girls' sports. "Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are a part of something. Four kids trying to get through each day," Cox said in the letter explaining his veto, in which he cited suicide rates for transgender youth. "Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. I don’t understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live." Cox has also said the bill invites lawsuits that could bankrupt the state's high school athletics governing body. (More Utah stories.)