'It took backroom scheming and a lobbying blitz by the Utah Eagle Forum to get a last-minute bill passed banning transgender athletes. Gov. Cox says he will veto it, leaving Utah where it started, only with hurt feelings and deep mistrust.'
Utah Senate Republicans waited until the reelection filing deadline had expired on Friday to introduce legislation targeting transgender athletes in sports.
Nobody really liked it. Conservatives saw it as too permissive and LGBTQ advocates shuddered at the thought of a transgender child being subjected to humiliating poking and prodding. But both sides could live with it.transgender University of Pennsylvania studentIn Utah, this has yet to be a problem.
So on March 4, Bramble put forward a compromise, the third substitute, striking the specific physical criteria and letting the commission decide itself if a child should compete. At the time, Bramble told me, he had the votes to pass it. That’s when Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, proposed a hybrid alternative: a full ban that would revert to the commission if the prohibition was struck down by the courts, which he conceded was likely to be the case.
Democrats, too, went into a frenzy and asked for a recess to read the new language. In a break with normal Senate courtesies, Republicans refused and plowed ahead.McCay acknowledged the bill would draw a lawsuit and that UHSAA, and possibly local districts, would be stuck with unknown costs. Each of the 10 states that had passed bans had been sued.
None of it mattered. The real debate and the real votes had already been counted in the Republican caucus. The bill passed 16-13 and was approved a short time later by the House.