Utah Gov. Spencer Cox pledged to veto legislation that would have prevented biological males from participating in female sports in his state.
The same Republican governor who defended racism as long as it’s against white kids now wants to erase women’s sports by letting males who claim they are females participate.
“Anyone that’s interacted with the transgender community understands how amazing they are and how difficult it can be for them. I don’t want to make things harder for them than they have to be,” Cox said.
The Republican-controlled Utah legislature passed the bill on Friday after it was strengthened to limit participation in sports to biological sex as “determined by an individual’s genetics and anatomy at birth.”
What started as a weaker bill that allowed biological males to participate in female sports if they met certain physical requirements quickly morphed, with the help of some GOP members, into a stronger legislative package that bars “student[s] of the male sex” from encroaching on female sports.
The bill only passed the Senate by three votes after seven Republicans in the upper house voted with Democrats to reject the legislation. Several GOP representatives in the Utah state House of Representatives also sided with Democrats to oppose the bill but failed to stifle the 46-29 vote to pass it.
Nearly a dozen Republican-led states have taken action to keep biological males out of female sports and locker rooms but under Cox’s new vow, Utahns will not be afforded the same protections. Much like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who promised to vote for protecting female spaces before suddenly changing her mind, Cox was prepared to vote in favor of creating a commission to evaluate whether a male who claimed to be a female would be a fair, physical match in female sports. He had worked for months behind the scenes with legislators willing to compromise biological sex in favor of allowing approved students to participate in sports that do not correspond with their sex.
When GOP legislators expanded the protections for girls’ sports, the governor instead said he was “very disappointed” and pledged to veto the legislation altogether.
“To those hurting tonight: It’s going to be OK. We’re going to help you get through this,” Cox posted on Facebook.
Cox’s refusal to protect female spaces earned him praise from several radical, pro-genital mutilation groups including the Human Rights Campaign.
“Utahns deserve better than legislators who are seeking to bully transgender youth with politically motivated bills for the sake of discrimination itself,” Cathryn Oakley, Human Rights Campaign state legislative director and senior counsel, said in a statement. “Gov. Cox has shown he sees the humanity of the transgender youth impacted by this legislation — something Governors in states like South Dakota and Iowa have not. The Human Rights Campaign appreciates his promise to veto.”
Even Cox’s Republican Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson tweeted that she believed a “veto is the right call.”
In my 10 years on Capitol Hill I have never felt as sick over the debate or outcome of a bill as I did over this one tonight. Veto is the right call. https://t.co/LXJpxTrfxO
— Deidre Henderson 🇺🇦 (@DeidreHenderson) March 5, 2022
What Cox did not acknowledge in his justification for the impending veto, however, is just how unfair allowing biological males to participate in female sports truly is.
Even female-only college sports, which are supposed to be protected under Title IX, are threatened by men such as University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and radical gender allies in the NCAA who don’t care that Thomas easily beat female competitors and smashed records that women swimmers had not yet reached.
In the U.S., students as young as 4 years old are taught in public schools that they can swap out their pronouns and private parts depending on how they feel. These same government schools justify letting high school boys who identify as girls into women’s bathrooms, which has opened the door for sexual assaults. Men, some accused of sex crimes against women, are being shuttered in female prisons in places like California simply because they claim to be women.
Source: The Federalist