Red state Republican governors are vetoing bills targeting transgender children, mostly over sports access in schools, only to have redder state legislatures override their vetoes in search of a political payoff in November.
The dissonance is pitting conservatives against each other, as one side cites government overreach and a violation of personal freedom, while the other invokes parental rights.
Conservatives who oppose these laws as overkill should be held up and celebrated as a reminder that dissent is still possible in today’s GOP. There are independent governing bodies in the sports world that are putting in place respectful regulations. Singling out the minuscule number of kids that are affected with mean-spirited messages masquerading as law shames the GOP and much of what it once claimed to stand for.
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“If you’re a conservative, in theory you believe in limited government, and this doesn’t rise to the level where government should be involved,” Trey Grayson, co-chair of Conservatives Against Discrimination’s leadership council and a former Kentucky secretary of state told The Daily Beast. “We have gender-specific sports for a reason. We should leave it up to sports federations.”
Grayson said he has “evolved” on LGBTQ issues. After opposing same sex marriage, in 2019 he posted a video on YouTube—in which he describes himself as a husband, a father, a Christian, and a Republican—saying he wants Republicans to know “it’s OK to change your mind on issues. I did. I have evolved. I think I’m in the right spot now.”
“I was struck by the number of Republicans who said, ‘Yeah, I agree.’” Grayson said. He wants lawmakers in state legislatures to moderate these anti-trans bills or slow walk them until the clock runs out. “It happens all the time on other bills,” he added. “If we get the word out, we can make a difference.”
Grayson highlighted Govs. Spencer Cox of Utah and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas—two Republicans who knew their vetoes would be overridden by members of their own party. The Utah bill bans trans girls from playing girls’ sports, and the Arkansas bill prohibits gender-affirming medical care. Both governors could have quietly allowed the ban to take effect, but they wanted to pick a fight. They wanted their opposition known.
“This isn’t Charlie Baker or Larry Hogan (Republicans in blue states). These are conservatives,” said Grayson.
You can add Indiana Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb to that list, whose veto of a ban on trans girls playing girls’ sports is expected to be overridden when the Indiana legislature convenes for a one-day session on May 24. There are now three dozen states and counting with bans in place for trans girls playing girls’ sports. Holcomb said the bans are a solution for a problem that does not exist. Indiana schools already have regulations in place governing transgender sports participation.
Indiana requires only a majority vote to override, and Republicans have a supermajority. Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun tweeted his support for a veto override “to protect women’s athletics.”
In North Dakota, Republicans failed to override Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s veto, when lawmakers poised to vote to override were swayed by warnings of likely repercussions from the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) if the ban affected collegiate sports. The bill went through several rewrites before falling short by four votes in the state senate.
But the Kentucky legislature easily overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto in April of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act that bans transgender girls and women from participating in sports through the college level. A trans girl middle-schooler testified against the bill. She helped start a girls’ field hockey team, but now can’t play on it.
GOP lawmakers invited University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who competed against University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who is transgender, to make the case for the ban. A mediocre swimmer as a male, Thomas is winning races as a woman, igniting the debate that is now a centerpiece of the culture wars.
The override vote in the state senate was 30 to 8, said Grayson. “Even in Kentucky, we had a couple of Republicans, one or two” who bucked the majority, he added.
“The whole issue of gender identity is very fraught, and it depends on how the issue is framed, and to whom the argument is being made,” said Bill Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “If it’s framed as one of parental rights or harm to children, then you’re having one kind of discussion. If the issue is framed as discrimination, then you’re having another kind of discussion.”
Galston cited a Harvard/Harris survey that shows majority support for the idea that, for children from kindergarten to the third grade, gender discussions should be left to parents, and schools should stay out of it. “From a populist majoritarian standpoint, (Florida Gov.) DeSantis is not off his rocker. He’s on pretty solid ground, and so are the other states that are moving in that direction.”
Attitudes on gay rights have moved quickly, astonishingly so, noted Galston, but he cautioned against drawing inferences on what might happen next. There’s no guarantee that transgender acceptance will move at lightning speed, and certainly not by the November midterms. In the meantime, he urged analysts to make a distinction between the motive of politicians eager to stir up their base and the sentiments of ordinary people.
“This is the Republican playbook,” said Jim Kessler with Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. Just like they did in 1994 and 2010, banner years for the GOP, “Their goal is to put culture issues on the ballot and make Democrats look like out of touch elitists.” In 1994, it was gays in the military, and in 2010, it was Sarah Palin claiming Obamacare had “death panels.”
Democrats always think Republicans have gone too far, but they rarely pay the price for agitating an angry electorate. Kessler is skeptical this time will be any different.
“All of these issues need to be handled with care and compassion, but in the political arena, lighting fire to these issues has worked. If it turns out Republicans have gone too far, it’s because people recognize this is the type of bullying that they find repulsive,” Kessler said.
In the seven years since the Supreme Court narrowly legalized gay marriage in a 5 to 4 decision, there have been great strides in welcoming the diversity of openly gay people in every walk of life. Yet there remains a threatening fragility to everything that’s been attained. The four “no” votes in that 2015 SCOTUS decision remain on the Court, bolstered by two more conservatives. The fifth vote and deciding vote for same sex marriage was replaced by a Trump appointee.
Republican governors who are standing up to Republican legislatures are trying to steer their party back to true conservative values and away from the exploitative fear tactics that pit parents against teachers and kids against kids.
They’re taking a courageous stand, and in a rapidly changing America, where the arc of justice bends toward tolerance and diversity, these are the emotional debates that can force a party’s reckoning.
