Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox is under fire from voters after saying that he plans to veto legislation passed Friday that would prohibit transgender youth from participating in girls' sports.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, the governor said, "We care deeply about Utah's female athletes and our LGBTQ+ community."
"To those hurting tonight: It's going to be OK. We're going to help you get through this. Please reach out if you need help. Safe_UT is free and provides immediate and confidential counseling," he added.
"This is not ok,” Tracie Charles Wilton said in the post's comments. "The majority of LGBTQ+ teens are definitely hurting and disadvantaged, for sure ... but how do we solve that? By diminishing the potential of another group of humans, who have a history both past and present, of having to fight for their own rights to equality? I like you Cox, but this one is an egregious misfire. You're drinking the coolaid (sic). Two wrongs don't a right make."
Specifically, the legislation "imposes limits on participation in female sports" by "requiring schools and local education agencies to designate athletic activities by sex" and "prohibiting a student of the male sex from competing against another school on a team designated for female students."
Calling Cox a "RINO" (Republican In Name Only), Joni Miller compared the governor to Sen. Mitt Romney, who represents Utah in the U.S. Senate and has frequently been accused of not being conservative enough.
“INCREDIBLE!” Miller wrote. "So you are 'helping' 'transgender' women, by throwing 'biological' women under the bus? So ashamed of my state with you as the RINO Governor! The sooner that you and Mittens Romney are out of office and 'doing lunch' together the better UTAH will be!"
ABC 4 reports that Romney spoke out against allowing transgender girls to compete in biological women's sports in February 2021 during Education Secretary Dr. Miguel Cardona's confirmation hearing.
The Utah senator said his granddaughters "shouldn’t be competing with people who are physiologically in an entirely different category, and I think boys should be competing with boys and girls should be competing with girls on the athletic field."
There were some people, however, who supported Cox's planned veto in the Facebook post's comments.
"Thank you for having a backbone, at least on this, Governor Cox," Brian Rothschild said. "Please do not hesitate, and veto this attack by powerful old men on our children."
Trisha Loveless thanked the governor for his pledge to veto the measure.
"I hope you follow through with your promise to veto HB11," she said. "It flies in the face of science, the law, and common decency."
In South Dakota, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed a similar bill last month, preventing transgender girls from competing on sports teams with biological girls.
"We will ensure that we have fairness and a level playing field for female athletes here in the state of South Dakota, at the K-12 level and at the university level," Noem said at the time.
Going a step further, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has instructed state agencies to investigate instances of transgender procedures being performed on children, after an opinion by the state's Attorney General's office determined that some of the procedures are considered child abuse under Texas state law.
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