Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) vetoed a bill on Wednesday that would have prevented females from having to compete against biological males identifying as women from sixth grade up into college.
The vetoed bill would have required athletes to compete in sports according to their gender.
Beshear is not the only governor to recently veto bills intended to protect women’s sports from transgender competition. Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R) and Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb (R) also rejected similar bills.
In the explanation for his veto, Beshear claimed the bill would harm transgender children.
“Transgender children deserve public officials’ efforts to demonstrate that they are valued members of our communities through compassion, kindness and empathy, even if not understanding,” the governor said.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
Beshear also cited the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s rules regarding transgender participation, which stipulate that transgender athletes must undergo hormone therapy after puberty to mitigate their physical advantages as men.
However, as we’ve seen with UPenn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, hormone therapy does not reduce men’s athletic advantage over women in sports.
Lia Thomas took testosterone blockers for 2 1/2 years before joining the women’s swimming team. Despite hormone therapy and his record as a thoroughly mediocre competitor on the men’s side (462nd nationally), Thomas smashed multiple records on the women’s side and beat top-level female Olympic competitors.
Lia Thomas just took first place at the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Women's Swimming & Diving Championships in the 500 freestyle. #SaveWomensSports pic.twitter.com/UWvDQMYHRJ
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) March 17, 2022
Proving that hormone therapy and testosterone suppression does nothing to mitigate male advantages in bone density and structure, heart and lung size, or muscle mass.
Thomas proved what sports scientists such as Ross Tucker have been saying: even an average male athlete on T therapy will be dominant against female athletes.
The Lia Thomas result last night is pretty straightforward – confirmation of hypothesis. Based on the physiology, it was predictable that a male athlete with sufficient base level athleticism would suppress T, retain enough physiological advantage & thus performance, to win (1/_
— Ross Tucker (@Scienceofsport) March 18, 2022
However, the vetoed bill, The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, passed with significant Republican support and could potentially override Governor Beshear’s veto, ABC News reports.
“It would be crushing for a young lady to train her whole career to have it end up competing against a biological male in the state tournament or state finals,” the bill’s lead sponsor Senator Robby Mills (R), said.
As many as 15 state legislatures have passed bills banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.
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