Wisconsin’s Democrat Governor Tony Evers has vetoed a bill that sought to protect girls’ and women’s sports events from being dominated by male athletes.
Evers issued a gloating announcement that he vetoed the bill on Tuesday just weeks after it passed the state Senate.
The bill was passed by the state Senate in March by a 20 to 11 vote.
The legislation would require athletes to compete in sports categories in line with their real biological sex and not their so-called “gender identity.”
Evers had expressed displeasure with the legislation in the past.
The governor opted to veto the bill, arguing that it would only embolden “anti-LGBTQ harassment, bullying, and violence,” according to a press release.
In the press release, Evers said:
“This type of legislation, and the harmful rhetoric beget by pursuing it, harms LGBTQ Wisconsinites’ and kids’ mental health, emboldens anti-LGBTQ harassment, bullying, and violence, and threatens the safety and dignity of LGBTQ Wisconsinites, especially our LGBTQ kids.
“I will veto any bill that makes Wisconsin a less safe, less inclusive, and less welcoming place for LGBTQ people and kids, and I will continue to keep my promise of using every power available to me to defend them, protect their rights, and keep them safe.”
In a post on X, Evers shared a video of himself signing the video.
WATCH:
BREAKING: I just vetoed Republicans’ anti-LGBTQ bill to ban trans and gender nonconforming kids from participating in school sports teams that align with their gender identity.
LGBTQ kids deserve our love and respect and support just like any other kid. pic.twitter.com/h4BT2uhj3K
— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) April 2, 2024
The bill was passed in October 2023 by the state Assembly.
It was passed in a package of bills that also banned men from competing in women’s collegiate sports.
The bill would bar a physician from performing a sex change surgery or administering puberty blockers to a minor or risk losing their license.
Wisconsin Republicans moved the legislation forward despite Evers telling transgender advocates at a rally at the state capital that he would veto any such legislation coming to his desk.
“Men have major physical advantages,” Republican state Rep. Joel Kitchens said during the bill’s testimony period in 2023, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“They’re bigger, they’re stronger, they’re faster.
“Title IX was created so that women can have the same access to the same advantages, the same character building that takes place (in sports) that men always have experienced.”
Republicans do not have a two-thirds majority in either legislative House, meaning they don’t currently have the votes to override the veto.
