Utah legislature overrides governor's veto, approves ban on biological males competing in girls' sports

Questions related to Utah's liability surrounding the passage of a bill banning biological males from competing on female sports teams might've been too much for the state's Governor Spencer Cox, but not his state's legislature.

On Friday, the Utah legislature voted to override the governor's veto on the bill.

The motion to override the veto passed the Utah Senate with 21 yeas and 8 nays after being approved by Utah's House of Representatives in a vote of 56 for and 18 against, the supermajority needed to override Cox's veto.

Nate Hochman of the National Review pointed out how the voting margin thresholds for the override met a much larger margin than the original bill's passage.

Cox made clear his intentions to veto a bill banning biological males from competing in girls' sports earlier this month. In a public appeal to emotions over science, the governor had initially vetoed the transgender sports ban back on Tuesday.

Per ABC, Cox said his veto was additionally done "because the bill was substantially changed in the final hours of the legislative session with no public input and in a way that will likely bankrupt the Utah High School Athletic Association and result in millions of dollars in legal fees for local school districts."

Here's the earlier letter the Utah governor wrote to the state legislature:

HB 11 defines sex as male or female and assigned by an individual's genetics and anatomy at birth and prohibits "a student of the male sex from competing against another school on a team designated for female students."

It initially tried to compromise with approving trans participation of biological males in female sports if a commission allowed it.

But the last-minute changes elected for a blanket ban instead.

In speaking to the Daily Wire, Utah Republican Rep. Kera Birkeland (the bill's sponsor) told the outlet: "From the beginning, my goal has been to protect and preserve women’s sports and speak out for Utah’s female athletes. We have seen the necessity of such legislation play out recently and I am proud to stand up and fight for girls to have the opportunity to compete on an even playing field."

Thursday saw several states approving bills that block biological males from competing in female sports teams. Kentucky joined the likes of Arizona and Oklahoma in passing "Save Women's Sports" bills within their state legislatures, sending it off to the governors of their states for final approval.

Controversial swimmer Lia Thomas reignited public debate over the transgender athletes issue with the college swimmer's NCAA win, and it was to the point that Big Tech social media platforms like Twitter actively suppressed the public discourse from disagreeing with leftist ideology on the topic.

President Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson told Senator Marsha Blackburn during a confirmation hearing that she couldn't define what a woman was because she's "not a biologist," an answer mocked by critics.