Kentucky’s Democratic governor Andy Beshear vetoed a GOP-backed bill on Wednesday that would ban transgender athletes from participating on girls’ school sports teams from sixth grade through college.
The bill stipulates that a student’s “biological sex” on their birth certificate determines whether the student may participate in women’s or men’s sports. The Kentucky Senate passed the bill 26-9 on March 24, while the state House approved the bill 70-23 in a vote earlier that month.
However, in a veto message to lawmakers, Beshear said that the Kentucky High School Athletics Association’s current transgender policy already provides sufficient guidance for the issue. Beshear noted that under KHSAA rules a transgender student athlete must take hormonal therapy “to minimize gender-related advantages in competition” and must compete according to the gender on their birth certificate if they stop taking hormone therapy. Beshear did not acknowledge the fact that biological males retain numerous physical advantages even 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 wrote. Additionally, the governor said the bill is likely violates 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 sponsored the legislation, said the bill “thinks ahead” to block potential instances of unfair 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 may take action to override the governor’s veto. Thirteen other states have passed similar legislation into law, most recently Oklahoma.
Beshear’s stated concerns about the legislation echoed veto messages from Republican governors Spencer Cox of Utah and Eric Holcomb of Indiana regarding similar bills in their states. Cox and Holcomb both said there weren’t enough examples of unfair competition to justify the bills, and also warned of potential lawsuits that could render the legislation inactive.
The Utah legislature overrode Cox’s veto on March 25.