{"id":1773,"date":"2022-03-25T07:28:38","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T07:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/indiana-family-fears-battle-over-states-transgender-athlete-ban-isnt-over-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2022-03-25T07:28:38","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T07:28:38","slug":"indiana-family-fears-battle-over-states-transgender-athlete-ban-isnt-over-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/25\/indiana-family-fears-battle-over-states-transgender-athlete-ban-isnt-over-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana family fears battle over state's transgender athlete ban isn't over – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An Indiana family celebrated after Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb vetoed a bill Monday<\/a> that would have banned their transgender daughter from playing sports.\u00a0
\u201cThere were happy tears shed,\u201d Nathaniel Clawson, the father of a 9-year-old trans girl named Kirin, told NBC affiliate WTHR<\/a> of Indianapolis.\u00a0
Kirin plays soccer and volleyball and is involved in roller derby. \u201cThere was dancing, and when I told Kirin, she squealed with glee,\u201d Clawson said of Holcomb\u2019s veto.
But their celebration might be short-lived.
Indiana legislators have enough votes to override Holcomb\u2019s veto and enact the bill, which would bar Kirin from playing on girls\u2019 sports teams at school.\u00a0
If that happens, Indiana would become the 12th state to ban trans student athletes from playing on the school sports teams that align with their gender identities, as opposed to their assigned sexes at birth.
The issue is part of what advocates have described as a culture war debate ignited by conservatives in recent years to drive voters to the polls. Thirty states<\/a> have considered bills similar to Indiana\u2019s this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which tracks the bills.
Supporters of trans athlete bans argue that they\u2019re protecting fairness in women\u2019s sports, because trans women get a competitive advantage from going through testosterone-driven puberty.\u00a0
Advocates say that the bills are a solution in search of a problem and that transgender girls aren\u2019t dominating girls\u2019 sports in elementary, middle or high schools \u2014 the levels of sport the bills target.
\u201cMy daughter will never go through male puberty,\u201d Clawson told WTHR. He added that Kirin will undergo hormone therapy and that, as a result, \u201cshe will not have any of the muscle mass, the bone density that people are worried about.\u201d
Advocates also say the bills are an attempt to bar trans youths from being able to take part in the same activities as their peers, which could lead to social ostracization in other ways and have negative mental health impacts.\u00a0
Clawson told WTHR that sports for kids should also be more about learning skills like teamwork than about winning.\u00a0
\u201cMy wife basically has said \u2014 and I agree with her \u2014 that my kid\u2019s mental health is more important than your kid\u2019s trophy,\u201d he said.
Holcomb is one of three Republican governors to have vetoed a trans athlete ban. In his veto letter<\/a>, he said the legislation \u201cfalls short\u201d of providing a consistent statewide policy for \u201cfairness in K-12 sports.\u201d He said the policy presumes that there is an existing problem with K-12 sports in Indiana and that the \u201cgoals of consistency and fairness in female sports\u201d aren\u2019t being met.\u00a0
\u201cAfter thorough review, I find no evidence to support either claim even if I support the effort overall,\u201d he wrote.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed a similar bill Tuesday<\/a>, writing in an emotional letter to the Legislature that five numbers led to his veto. He said that 75,000 kids participate in high school sports in Utah and that of those, only four are transgender. Of those four, one plays girls\u2019 sports. He also cited a 2020 study<\/a> that found that 86 percent of trans youths have reported suicidal thoughts and that 56 percent have reported attempting suicide.\u00a0
\u201cFour kids and only one of them playing girls sports,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThat\u2019s what all of this is about. Four kids who aren\u2019t dominating or winning trophies or taking scholarships. Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are a part of something. Four kids trying to get through each day. Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few.\u201d
Cox also acknowledged that the Legislature has the votes to override his veto. \u201cIf a veto override occurs, I hope we can work to find ways to show these four kids that we love them and they have a place in our state,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0
Last year, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, also a Republican, vetoed a similar bill, saying at the time<\/a> that the state \u201chas a level playing field and fairness in girls\u2019 sports.\u201d\u00a0
\u201cTo date there has not been a single recorded incident of a transgender girl attempting to play on a North Dakota girls\u2019 team,\u201d he said in a statement<\/a> at the time.
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Jo Yurcaba is a reporter for NBC Out.
© 2022 NBC UNIVERSAL<\/p>\n

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ProfileSectionstvFeaturedMore From NBCFollow NBC NewsAn Indiana family celebrated after Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb vetoed a bill Monday that would have banned their transgender daughter from playing sports.\u00a0\u201cThere were happy tears shed,\u201d Nathaniel Clawson, the father of a 9-year-old trans girl named Kirin, told NBC affiliate WTHR of Indianapolis.\u00a0Kirin plays soccer and volleyball and is involved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}