In recent weeks, two Republican governors have taken the unusual step of vetoing legislation meant to protect female-only athletics. In both Utah and Indiana, lawmakers passed legislation prohibiting biologically male athletes from competing on girls’ sports teams, an eminently reasonable policy that several other states have enacted.
But Republican governors Eric Holcomb of Indiana and Spencer Cox of Utah appear to think otherwise. As our own Nate Hochman chronicled in a piece yesterday, this was hardly the first sign that Cox is . . . less than conservative when it comes to social issues. And Nate has also noted that Holcomb’s veto came in spite of the fact that protecting female sports is popular in Indiana (to no one’s surprise).
What exactly is afoot? I don’t have much insight into why these two issued their vetoes — it seems fair to infer that Cox might actually want to let biological males compete against girls, while Holcomb seems to be playing a political game that necessitates rejecting his state’s consensus. But their vetoes are an occasion to note that we are at a major inflection point in the debate over gender identity, over the fundamental realities of what it means to be a man or a woman, and now is not the time to let up.
Mere weeks ago, the nation watched the biologically male UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas dominate the NCAA championship competition, racing against young women who have worked their whole lives to get where they are and who stood little chance against Thomas’s inherent biological advantages. We all know that this is a charade and that it’s deeply unfair, but elite progressives are committed to continuing the lie, no matter the cost to women and girls. If “conservative” politicians plan to go along with the charade, they should be prepared to kiss their political careers goodbye.