Gov. Eric Holcomb
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s governor on Monday vetoed a bill banning transgender females from participating in girls school sports while signing another measure eliminating the state’s permit requirement to carry handguns in public.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s decisions come after both measures faced intense opposition before being approved by the GOP-dominated legislature that embraced what have become a pair of conservative causes across the country.
Holcomb went against the vocal opposition of his state police superintendent to further the loosening of the state’s lenient firearms laws. The permit repeal, called “constitutional carry” by gun-rights supporters in reference to the Second Amendment, was criticized by major law enforcement groups who argued eliminating the permit system would endanger officers by stripping them of a screening tool for quickly identifying dangerous people who shouldn’t have guns.
Opponents of the transgender sports bill argued it was a bigoted response to a problem that doesn’t exist, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana saying it planned a lawsuit against what it called “hateful legislation.”
Republican sponsors of the bill said it was needed to protect the integrity of female sports and opportunities for girls to gain college athletic scholarship but pointed out no instances in the state of girls being outperformed by transgender athletes.
