Posted on 03/22/2022 9:56:40 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Republican governor of Indiana has vetoed a bill that would have prohibited biological males who identify as female to participate in female sporting competitions, expressing multiple concerns about the proposed legislation.
Gov. Eric Holcomb vetoed House Enrolled Act 1041 on Monday, explaining his reasoning in a letter to Indiana House of Representatives Speaker Todd Huston, also a Republican.
Holcomb expressed concern with the bill’s “wide-open nature of the grievance provisions,” believing they made it “unclear about how consistency and fairness will be maintained for parents and students across different counties and school districts.”
The governor worries about the potential for the bill to tie the state up in litigation. He noted that other states that have passed similar legislation had been sued, with some court decisions coming down in favor of the plaintiffs.
Holcomb believes that the Indiana High School Athletic Association is doing a sufficiently decent job maintaining fairness in student sports without the new law.
“I am heartened by the IHSAA which has done an admirable job to help maintain fairness and consistency in all sports,” wrote Holcomb. “Nowhere in the testimony on this legislation was a critique leveled against their model on how to govern this and other complex matters.”
“Furthermore, not a single case of a male seeking to participate on a female team has completed the process established by IHSAA’s now decade-old policy.”
Meridian Baldacci of the socially conservative Family Policy Alliance, which supported the legislation, contends in a statement that Holcomb has “abandoned young Hoosier girls” and left them susceptible to the “same fate” as female college swimmers who lost to trans-identified swimmer Lia Thomas in the NCAA 500-yard freestyle national championship this month.
While Thomas finished first by 1.75 seconds in the NCAA 500-yard freestyle, the athlete finished eighth in the 100-yard freestyle championship and fifth in the 200-yard freestyle final. Thomas is now a three-time All-American by competing in the finals of all three categories.
“Every time a male is awarded a limited girls’ roster spot, competition placement, scholarship, championship title or career opportunity, a female athlete has that same opportunity taken away from her – in a contest meant just for females,” stated Baldacci.
“The Indiana General Assembly must override this misguided and concerning veto from the governor of one of the most conservative states in the nation.”
Critics contend that biological males who identify as females have innate advantages from being biologically male and, on average, are larger with more muscle mass and higher bone density.
However, liberal organizations, like the American Civil Liberties Union, have denied that any “unfair” advantage exists for trans-identified biological males who compete against women or girls because “athletes vary in athletic ability just like cisgender athletes” and success often depends on techniques and training.
According to the LGBT activist group the Movement Advancement Project, 12 states have passed laws prohibiting men who identify as female from competing in sports designated for females. The others include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
Earlier this month, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law requiring students to confirm their biological sex before being allowed to compete in girls’ sports.
“No amount of talent, training or effort can make up for the natural physical advantages males have over females. It’s simply a reality of human biology,” stated Reynolds. “Forcing females to compete against males is the opposite of inclusivity and it’s absolutely unfair.”
In 2021, the NCAA threatened not to host championship tournaments and contests in states that have passed laws impacting the ability of trans-identified athletes to compete based on their gender identity.
The success of Thomas, a biological male who competed previously on the Penn men’s swim team before competing this year on the women’s team, has sparked much debate about NCAA policies on trans-identified athletes.
Virginia Tech swimmer Reka Gyorgy, who missed the cut to compete in the 500-yard freestyle finals, voiced her displeasure with the NCAA’s policy. She wrote a letter to the NCAA on Sunday.
“It feels like the final spot was taken from me because of the NCAA’s decision to let someone who is not a biological female compete,” she wrote.
“I know you could say I had the opportunity to swim faster and make the top 16, but this situation makes it a bit different and I can’t help but be angry or sad. It hurts me, my team and other women in the pool. One spot was taken away from the girl who got 9th in the 500 free and din’t [sic] make it back to the A final preventing her from being an All-American. Every event that transgender athletes competed in was one spot taken away from biological females throughout the meet.”
A complete jackass and fairy.
These female fakers should be kicked between the legs to prove they are really females. Otherwise they are just frauds who participate without certification.
This is hypocritical.
The bill needs to deal with both sides. Because its wrong regardless of gender. A girl takes away a spot from a boy that could be on the team just to make a personal statement.
Its not wrong because someone wins you dont like competing. Its wrong because its wrong and it encourages and validates mental illness that needs to be treated. In boys AND girls. Men AND women.
And we can be sure this sap would welcome democrat voters into gop primary voting to give the dnc scum an advantage.
How long have Republicans lost the women’s vote? Wouldn’t want that to change. Then again they don’t call it the stupid party for nothing.
Passing laws to “fix” a problem like this is part of the problem. This has to be done from the inside at the grassroots level — even if it means walking away from institutions and lifestyles we’ve come to view as our secular gods.
We are witnessing the Tower of Babel version 2.0.
Will the governor veto all future legislation that risks lawsuits? Maybe that's a good thing?
Nobody needed to pass a law to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Ultimately, the team owners just figured out that it made no sense to put inferior teams on the field while superior athletes were left out.
I’m becoming convinced that there are a great many more Sodomites and Pedophiles in Government than we ever knew. What else can explain him vetoing this common-sense Bill?
The ananalogy I use is Ancient Rome.
-an
March 22, Governor De Santis (R-FL) awarded a first place proclamation to a female who finished second—behind a trans-sexual (~male) swimmer.
On the upside, he signed a constitutional carry law for Indiana.
Given a choice between the two, though, I’d rather have our women not have to compete against these perverse transformers.
How’s this for a compromise. No more taxpayer funded gender segregated sports. No more NBA/wNBA There is just one team for everyone that is completely by merit. Boy, girl you get in or don’t simply by how well you play. Boys and girls can still form their own teams informally of course.
An idiot for a governor.
Another RINO. They are everywhere and worthless.
I am not following you, are you suggesting that it be left up to competitors to decide to compete or not. Thus, it is okay to let men compete against women in the women category or women’s sports?
This nonsense will end when women and girls stop signing up for these stupid social engineering exercises and form their own sports leagues. This one step alone will likely mean the end of collegiate and high school sports — because under the ludicrous application of Title IX today, an NCAA school with zero women competing in sports may have to shut down all its men’s sports teams, too.
These women ought to grow up and act like adults instead of running to government to solve a problem that they are perfectly capable of solving themselves.
If there’s a “bad guy” in the case of this misfit “Lia” Thomas competing in women’s sports, it’s the NCAA and the schools that allow this charade to go on. Getting a state legislature and a governor involved only serves to help obscure that.
Follow the money. NCAA headquarters is located in Indianapolis.
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