The North Dakota government, Doug Burgum (R), on Wednesday vetoed a ban on transgender sports bans, saying the state already has adequate rules for sports leagues regarding transgender people.
“North Dakota has a great deal of fairness in girls ‘and boys’ sports because of the caring and thoughtful leadership of the North Dakota High School Activity Association (NDHSAA) board and its members,” Burgum said. “We are confident that they will continue to ensure a level playing field for the more than 27,000 students who participate in North Dakota high school sports.”
The state says a transgender student who does not take hormone treatment may not participate in sports with the gender they identify, The Bismarck Tribune report.
Transgender men must undergo testosterone treatment to participate in male sports leagues, and transgender women must undergo testosterone suppression treatment for one year before participating in female sports leagues.
“To date, there has been no single recording of a transgender girl trying to play in a North Dakota girls’ team. Furthermore, the NDHSAA already has regulations in place for participation in sex-separated interscholastic matches by transgender students,” Burgum said. said. .
The bill could be dominated by the State House and Senate, and the House gets enough votes for the first time to dominate the governor’s decision.
However, the Senate did not get enough votes to dominate for the first time and said it would only try to ignore the governor’s decision if the House did.
The bill said girls may play on boys’ teams, but prohibit public elementary and high schools from having anyone play exclusively in a school-sponsored team of the opposite sex.
The veto bill comes because many states have decided to ban or allow transgender athletes to play in the sports league that matches their gender.