Wisconsin passes transgender ban for k-12, college sports; Gov. Evers to veto

The Republican-led Wisconsin General Assembly passed anti-transgender bills on Wednesday and are headed to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' desk. He intends to veto Assembly Bills 195 and 196.

Wis. state Rep. Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) pushed the bills through with the support of 'family values' organizations and even sports stars like Olympian Bonnie Blair—an inductee of the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame and U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.

If they become law, transgender girls would not be allowed to play on girls sports teams anywhere from kindergarten through high school—and even in public colleges and universities like the University of Wisconsin.

Gov. Evers has expressed that such bills are cruel as they only prohibit youth from participating in normal rites of passage—like playing with their peers.

Fair Wisconsin—the leading LGBTQ lobby in the Dairy State—held a demonstration at the state capitol building ahead of the votes.

Executive Director Megin McDonnell attacked Republicans' argument that transgender girls compete at an advantage, stealing championships from cisgender girls—a theory disproven by various medical studies.

“Over the last few months, we've had massive public hearings, hundreds and hundreds of calls into legislator offices and they've still been unable to come up with a single example of this issue actually happening in Wisconsin,” McDonnell told Milwaukee Public Radio station WUWM.

Gov. Evers agrees.

Before the votes were taken, he said the legislature was a “solution seeking a problem that doesn't exist.”

Legal advocates claim the bills are a direct violation of Title IX—the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association opposed the bills because of the Title IX violation. They also say they have no evidence of transgender girls unfairly taking away championships from others.

University of Wisconsin-Madison—a Big Ten Conference school—said that if the bills become law, the Badgers would no longer be in compliance with NCAA's transgender inclusion policies.