Gov. Evers on Tuesday vetoed five Republican bills aimed at shielding children from irreversible gender transition surgeries and keeping boys out of girls’ sports and locker rooms.
Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday vetoed five Republican bills aimed at shielding minors from irreversible gender-transition procedures and preserving fairness in girls’ and women’s sports and school facilities.
Evers signed the vetoes during a private ceremony at the state Capitol that coincided with International Transgender Day of Visibility. In a statement, Evers said he was keeping his repeated promise to block any legislation he viewed as targeting transgender and “gender nonconforming” children.
The GOP-controlled Legislature had passed the measures along largely party-line votes earlier this year. Republicans argued the bills protect vulnerable children from experimental medical interventions with lifelong consequences and uphold biological reality in athletics and private spaces.
Assembly Bill 104 prohibited doctors from performing or referring for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or surgeries on anyone under the age of 18.
Assembly Bill 100 required K-12 public, charter and private choice schools to designate sports teams, locker rooms and facilities by biological sex as it is recorded on students’ original birth certificates.
Assembly Bill 102 would have extended similar requirements to schools in the University of Wisconsin System as well as technical colleges. The bill also included a provision allowing female students to sue schools that permit biological males to compete in women’s sports or use women’s restrooms or locker rooms.
Assembly Bill 103 required schools to obtain written parental consent before using a student’s name or pronouns that differ from the child’s official records.
Senate Bill 405 allowed people who received gender-transition procedures as minors to sue health care providers for physical, psychological, or emotional harm they suffered as a result of that treatment.
Republicans have highlighted growing international concern over youth gender medicine, including reviews in Europe showing almost no evidence whatsoever for benefits and high rates of mental health illness in those who claim to be transgender.
The GOP lacks the votes in the Legislature to override Evers’ vetoes.
