Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb vetoed a bill on Monday that attempts to ban transgender youth from sports in Indiana; gives cisgender students the power to potentially be ‘compensated’ with up to $1000 for playing with trans athletes; safeguards anti-trans policies by not allowing schools to challenge them.

In his veto letter, Holocomb states that the bill “falls short” in providing a consistent statewide policy for “fairness in K-12 sports” — a misnomer used in these legislative attacks.

He adds: “The presumption of the policy laid out in HEA 1041 is that there is an existing problem in K-12 sports in Indiana that requires further state government intervention. It implies that the goals of consistency and fairness in competitive female sports are not currently being met. After thorough review, I find no evidence to support either claim even if I support the effort overall.”

Despite this, Indiana legislators have enough votes to override the veto, and could potentially add the state to the list of eleven others that have banned trans athletes from participating in school sports.

Excluding trans girls and femme youth from participating in sports has negative outcomes for all youth. It reproduces patriarchal concepts of toxic masculinity that associate femininity with fragility.

The sex and gender binary are social constructs that restrict everyone regardless of their gender identity. And this bill is a patriarchal gatekeeping of womanhood that creates pathways for transmisogyny to be rewarded by law.

There is no equity if gender is defined by patriarchal systems that are designed to restrict everyone, regardless of their gender identity. There is no equity if women who are trans are excluded. These bills are an attack on all youth, women and sports.