Kera Birkeland: Last News

veto of a bill barring transgender girls from participating in female-designated sports.The House of Representatives voted 56-18 to override the veto, with the Senate voting 21-8 soon afterward. Four Republican lawmakers had needed to switch their initial votes to support the override.

letter announcing his veto that while “politically, it would be much easier and better for me to simply sign the bill,” he chose to veto it because he “tried to do what I feel is the right thing regardless of the consequences.”“I believe in fairness and protecting the integrity of women’s sports,” Cox said in his letter. “…Unfortunately, HB11 has several fundamental flaws and should be reconsidered.

original version of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Kera Birkeland (R-Morgan), sought to avoid a full-scale ban on transgender athletes like the one rejected last year by Utah lawmakers while ensuring that cisgender females are not disadvantaged by competing against transgender females who have a physiological advantage over them.To that end, Birkeland’s bill would have created a seven-person panel — comprised of six members appointed by the president of the State Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the governor — including: a sports physiologist, a board-certified physician, a mental health professional, and an athletic trainer — and one coach or interscholastic official appointed by the presiding state athletic association.The commission would then determine, on a case-by-case basis, an individual student’s eligibility, based on their personal physical characteristics, for competing on sports teams that match their gender identity.