After less than three weeks’ absence, Utah lawmakers will return to the State Capitol pn Friday to debate enactment of a controversial ban on transgender athletes in high school girls’ sports.
SALT LAKE CITY – As promised, Gov. Spencer Cox has vetoed a legislative proposal that would have banned transgender girls from participation in high school sports.
The governor’s staff announced on Tuesday, Mar. 22 that Cox had signed 88 bills passed by the Legislature into law since Monday. The only exception to that approval streak was House Bill 11, Student Eligibility in Interscholastic Sports Activities.
“I am not an expert on transgenderism,” Cox admitted in a five-page letter to Senate President Stuart J. Adams (R-Layton) and Speaker of the House Brad R. Wilson (R-Kaysville) explaining his decision. “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.”
Legislative leaders have already announced that they are prepared to override the promised veto.
In an effort to head-off such a confrontation, Cox issued a proclamation calling the Legislature back into special session almost simultaneously with the announcement of his veto.
The sole topic of that special session will be H.B. 11. The governor’s goal for that session will be to obtain an indemnification provision that would protect the Utah High School Athletic Association from inevitable lawsuits if his veto of the controversial law is overturned.
As now written, Cox wrote, “HB 11 provides no financial protection for the UHSAA, only the explicit invitation for a lawsuit … I hope you can agree that if we want to protect women’s sports, bankrupting the institution that is responsible for their participation is a bad place to start.”
After weeks of promising negotiations between lawmakers and LGBTQ advocates aimed at reaching a compromise that would have protected women’s sports while still allowing some participation by marginalized transgender youth, that effort was negated in the final hours of the recently concluded 64th general session of the Utah Legislature. What harried lawmakers passed in the final hours before midnight on Mar. 4 was a complete ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports.
“It is important to note that a complete ban was never discussed, never contemplated, never debated and never received any public input prior to the Legislature passing this bill on the 45th and final night of the session,” Cox argued in his letter to Adams and Wilson.
“I believe in process,” the governor added. “I believe that how we make policy matters almost as much as the policy itself … While I appreciate the apologies I have received from legislators involved in the truncated proceeding, I feel a veto is necessary to improve the process and better allow the public an opportunity to weigh in.”
The governor also cited statistics that suggested that the transgender issue in high school sports is a proverbial “tempest in a teapot.”
Of 75,000 youngsters participating in high school sports in Utah, he emphasized, only four are transgender and only one is playing girls’ sports.
“That’s what this is all about,” Cox wrote. “Four kids who aren’t dominating or winning trophies or taking scholarships. Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are part of something. Four kids who are just trying to get through each day.
“Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few.”
More important statistics, he said, are the facts that 86 percent of transgender youth report having suicidal thoughts and 56 percent of them have actually attempted suicide.
The special session of the Legislature on this issue is scheduled to convene at 2 p.m. in the Utah State Capitol on Friday.