What Utah transgender sports ban means for athletes in the state

The state Legislature this week struck down Gov. Spencer Cox’s veto of a controversial transgender athletes’ sports ban, making Utah the 12th state to impose restrictions on transgender girls participating in school sports aligning with their gender identity.

Which Utah student-athletes will be impacted by the ban?

Of the 75,000 students registered to play school sports in Utah, only four athletes identify as transgender children, including one transgender girl, according to Cox.

However, the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan said “a lot more” transgender athletes are playing in coed sports. Birkeland also emphasized that the law would not impact transgender athletes playing in coed sports.

Does the ban apply to collegiate sports athletes?

No. Troy Williams, executive director of Equality Utah, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, said the NCAA has policies to ensure fairness and opportunity in competition.

“The NCAA have policies in place to ensure fairness and opportunity in competition. They also expressly have policies to include transgender athletes,” Williams said. “The state should not intervene or meddle in collegiate sports. HB11 has caused immense pain amongst transgender Utahns and a nightmare for conservative lawmakers who are now facing primary challengers from extremists within their own party. I hope lawmakers have learned that these pointless culture war bills only lead to heartache, anger and division.”

When is the ban planned to take effect?

Under the law, the ban is expected to take effect on July 1.

Does the ban apply to Utah private schools?

Yes, the transgender athlete sports ban would apply to private schools competing against public schools, according to the law.

Utah bans transgender athletes in girls sports despite veto?

GOP lawmakers in Utah pushed through a ban on transgender youth athletes playing on girls teams Friday, overriding a veto and joining 11 other states with similar laws amid a nationwide culture war.

A veto letter from Gov. Spencer Cox drew national attention with a poignant argument that such laws target vulnerable transgender kids already at high suicide risk.

Business leaders also sounded the alarm that the ban could have a multimillion-dollar economic impact on Utah, including the possible loss of the NBA All-Star Game next year. The Utah Jazz called the ban “discriminatory legislation” and opposed it.

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.

“I cannot support this bill. I cannot support the veto override and if it costs me my seat so be it. I will do the right thing, as I always do,” said Republican Sen. Daniel Thatcher.

With the override of Cox’s veto, a dozen states have some sort of ban on transgender kids in school sports. Utah’s law takes effect July 1.

Not long ago efforts to regulate transgender kids’ participation in sports failed to gain traction in statehouses, but in the past two years groups like the American Principles Project began a well-coordinated effort to promote the legislation throughout the country. 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.

Utah has only one transgender girl playing in K-12 sports who would be affected by the ban. There have been no allegations of any of the four transgender youth athletes in Utah having competitive advantages.