The bill, which was passed by the state's Republican-controlled
legislature in late March, would have required all public
schools and some private schools to designate sports teams as
male, female or mixed, part of a wave of laws in recent years by
Republican politicians across the U.S. to regulate transgender
people's conduct.
Only children designated male on their original birth
certificate would be allowed to play on male teams, and only
children designated female at birth would be allowed to play on
female teams.
The bill would also let girls bring private lawsuits against a
school that violates the bill's terms, so long as they were
designated female on their original birth certificate.
"States across this country may give way to radical policies
targeting LGBTQ individuals and families and threatening LGBTQ
folks' everyday lives and their ability to be safe, valued,
supported, and welcome being who they are," Evers, a Democrat,
said in a statement. "As long as I am the governor of this great
state, Wisconsin will not be among them."
The bill passed the state legislature's two chambers along party
lines, and neither chamber has the needed two-thirds majority
vote to override a governor's veto.
Representative Barbara Dittrich, a Republican who co-authored
the bill, said the governor's veto was a "misogynistic and
hateful position towards actual females," noting that the bill
would allow transgender boys and girls to join schools' mixed
sports teams.
"While he and his ilk continue to gaslight our citizens that
this legislation was about hate and exclusion, he ignores the
fact that the legislation provides categories for every
Wisconsin student while respecting and protecting the safety and
merit of our state's biological girls," Dittrich said in a
statement.
The International Olympic Committee, in its 2021 guidelines,
says there must "no presumption of advantage" based on an
athlete's physical appearance or gender identity.
Some sports' governing bodies have created policies that impose
certain requirements before a transgender woman is able to
compete in a women's event; others have stated that transgender
women are free to join women's teams without any special
restrictions.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Leslie
Adler)
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