NICE TIME: Indiana's GOP Governor Vetoes Anti-Trans Sports Bill

Broken clock, blind squirrel, etc.

How is Ron DeSantis a real person? Florida's dipshit governor is like the mayor from Jaws — such a ridiculous caricature that he functions as a plot device, not a three-dimensional human being. Just look at this howling windsock responding to transgender swimmer Lia Thomas's NCAA win this weekend by issuing a "proclamation" that the second-place finisher was the "real" winner.

JUST NOW: @GovRonDeSantis says he will sign a "proclamation" naming @UVA and @USASwimming Olympian @emmaweyant the "best female swimmer" of the women's 500-yard freestyle. DeSantis said the @NCAA is "perpetuating fraud" & "trying to undermine the integrity of the competition"pic.twitter.com/wt6I058ILp

— Evan Donovan (@Evan Donovan) 1647963875 

FFS, the race wasn't even held in Florida, although, to be fair, second-place finisher Emma Weyant is a resident of Sarasota. But issuing a proclamation accomplishes exactly nothing besides inflaming an already complicated issue. Still, reality doesn't respond to gubernatorial temper tantrums, no matter how many of them that bloated sack of faux grievances throws.

Meanwhile, in Indiana, Republican Governor Eric Holcomb vetoed a bill that would have blocked trans kids in public schools from playing on sports teams which match their gender identity.

Noting the "wide-open nature of the grievance provisions" in the bill, which gestures vaguely in the name of an administrative process and instructs schools simply to get one, Gov. Holcomb worried in a letter that the law will be unfairly applied across school districts. Observing that two other states have had similar statutes enjoined on equal protection grounds, the governor said that he hoped to spare the state the expense of litigation.

But most importantly he acknowledged the reality that trans children on sports team are not a real problem that actually exists in Indiana. The Indiana High School Athletic Association, which did not support the bill, says there are no trans student athletes at the high school level, and so a statute which is supposed to ensure "fair competition in girls' sports" will have exactly zero impact other than dragging schools into litigation when some seven-year-old trans girl wants to play soccer and the school gets hit with a lawsuit by parents of another child who is "harmed" by her presence on the field.

Which is not to say that Holcomb is a hero here. He wholeheartedly supports the goal of "protect[ing] the integrity and fairness of women's sports in our state." He's just not trying to authorize a million dumb lawsuits to bust the budget of every school district in Indiana.

Which is what passes for Nice Times in the year 2022. But don't get too excited, because the legislature can override the veto with a simple majority, and they've got the votes. And really, what's more important: passing actual laws, or kicking trans kids to prove to your base voters that you're a bigoted asshole just like them?

I think we all know the answer to that one. And, PS, Holcomb signed a bill authorizing no-permit open carry, so let's not get carried away here calling him one of the good guys.

[ WaPo ]

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