(Headline USA) GOP lawmakers in Utah pushed through a ban on transgender athletes playing on girls’ teams Friday.
The move overrode a veto and joined 11 other states with similar laws amid a nationwide culture war.
Before the veto, the ban received support from a majority of Utah lawmakers, but fell short of the two-thirds needed to override it.
Its sponsors on Friday flipped 10 Republicans in the House and five in the Senate who had previously voted against the proposal.
Cox was the second GOP governor this week to overrule lawmakers on a sports-participation ban, but the proposal won support from a vocal conservative base that has particular sway in Utah’s state primary season.
Even with those contests looming, however, some Republicans stood with Cox to reject the ban.
Utah’s law takes effect July 1.
Since last year, bans have been introduced in at least 25 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
This week, lawmakers in Arizona and Oklahoma passed bans.
“You start these fights and inject them into politics,” said Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project. “You pass them in a few states and it starts to take on a life of its own and becomes organic. We helped start this fight and we’re helping carry it through, but a lot of this is coming from the local level.”
Leaders in the deeply conservative Utah say they need the law to protect women’s sports. The lawmakers argue that more transgender athletes with possible physical advantages could eventually dominate the field and change the nature of women’s sports without legal intervention.
Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.
