Indiana lawmakers set to override veto of trans sports ban
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Republican-dominated Indiana Legislature is poised on Tuesday to override the GOP governor’s veto of a bill banning transgender students from competing in girls sports, which would mean Indiana would join more than a dozen states that have adopted similar laws in the past two years.
The Indiana proposal won approval by wide margins in both the House and Senate before Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb in March unexpectedly vetoed the measure, saying it did not provide a consistent policy for what he called “fairness in K-12 sports.”
Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled state Assembly passed two transgender sports bans in June of 2021, despite the WIAA executive director, Dave Anderson, saying there hasn’t been a single instance “where we have heard from a member school, from a parent or a student that they had an opportunity taken, they have lost an opportunity or even a contest much less a championship due to having to compete against a transgender student.”
Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled state Legislature has been off the past two months, and isn’t scheduled back in session until next year — a nine-month hiatus.
Opponents of Indiana’s ban have argued the bill is a bigoted response to a problem that doesn’t exist. They say they have little hope of enough lawmakers changing their votes to block the veto override, which only needs simple majorities in the House and Senate.
Republican sponsors of the bill maintain it is needed to protect the integrity of female sports and opportunities for girls to gain college athletic scholarship but pointed out no instances in the state of transgender athletes outperforming other girls.
Activists planned a Statehouse rally against the ban ahead of the Legislature’s scheduled Tuesday afternoon votes. 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.”
TOP PHOTO: FILE – People gather to protest against HB1041, a bill to ban transgender women and girls from participating in school sports that match their gender identity, during a rally at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022. The Republican-dominated Indiana Legislature is poised on Tuesday. May 24, 2022, to override the GOP governor’s veto of a bill banning transgender females from competing in girls school sports, a step that would have Indiana join more than a dozen other states adopting similar laws in the past two years. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy File)
Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Smith on Twitter.