“According to KHSAA policy, a student-athlete can not compete if he or she has an unfair advantage,” Beshear said. “KHSAA policy requires that a student-athlete who has undergone gender reassignment after adolescence must receive hormone therapy in a verifiable manner and for a sufficient period of time to minimize gender-based competitive advantages.” Although Beshear’s move represents a rare occasion in which a Democratic governor had the opportunity to overturn such a ban by GOP lawmakers, Republicans voted in favor of the measure by a majority that vetoed it and could possibly overturn its veto when meet again in mid-April. Beshear is the third governor this year to veto a ban on trans sports after the GOP governors in Utah and Indiana did so in late March. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Senate Bill 83, entitled Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, would require Kentucky public and private schools with interdisciplinary sports administered by the state board to “designate all sports teams, activities and sports for students” in the classrooms. sixth to 12 as either “Boys”, “Coed” or “Girls”.
“A sport activity or sport designated as ‘girls’ for students in grades six (6) to twelve (12) is not permitted for male members,” the bill said. The law states that “sex” will be based on “the student’s biological sex as indicated on the original, unprocessed student birth certificate issued at the time of birth” or on a affidavit specifying the student’s biological sex at the time of birth “signed by a professional medical student who conducted an annual medical examination for the student.
While sex is a category widely referred to in physiology, a person’s gender is an innate sense of identity. Factors influencing the sex determination listed on the birth certificate can include anatomy, genetics, and hormones, and there is a great deal of natural variation in each of these categories. For this reason, critics have said that the language of “biological sex” as used in this legislation is too simplistic and misleading.
The bill would also have created a similar ban for Kentucky public and private colleges that are “members of a national intercollegiate sports association.”
The debate over the inclusion of trans athletes, especially women and girls, has become a political hotbed of controversy, especially among conservatives who have argued that they seek to maintain a level playing field for cisgender athletes.
A 2017 report in the journal Sports Medicine that looked at many related studies found no “direct or consistent research” on trans people who have an athletic advantage over their peers, and critics say the legislation adds to the discrimination faced by trans people, especially trans young people. .
“This law ensures that both sexes have the opportunity to play in a competitive and equitable environment,” said Republican lawmaker Ryan Dotson, a supporter of the bill, earlier this month during the debate on the proposal. . “I do not want a woman in our state to lose a women’s sports title, a scholarship, or the opportunity to play,” she added.
The NCAA has opposed such bans, saying last April that it was monitoring them closely to ensure that NCAA tournaments could be held “in a way that is welcoming and respectful to all participants”. So far this year, GOP governors in Iowa, South Dakota and Oklahoma have enacted similar sports bans. And lawmakers in Utah later overturned their governor’s veto to enforce the state ban.
Last year, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia imposed similar sports bans, angering LGBTQ supporters, who say conservatives are not raising an issue.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. their childhood the opportunity and benefits that come from playing school sports ”.
“During his tenure as governor, Beshear used the term ‘Team Kentucky’ as a phrase for the common values ​​of the state of courtesy, unity and collective aversion to bullies. But the phrase ‘Team Kentucky’ in a state “Playing the sports they love because they are trans would be an empty slogan,” said Kathryn Oakley, the group’s legal director and senior adviser, in a statement after lawmakers sent the bill to Besiar.
CNN’s Amanda Musa contributed to this report.