YOUNG REPUBLICANS OPPOSE VETO

A statement from the executive board

As members of Young Republicans Club, we believe it is unfair for students to play on sports teams that don’t fit their biological sex. It makes the sports and competition unequal. It also takes away scholarship opportunities, especially when there are biological males playing against biological females.

A sophomore on the Young Republicans club exec board, Mackenzie Farkes, wrestled against a biological male who was transitioning into a female.

“It makes me feel like all the work that has been done to separate my sport into its own gender group was for nothing,’ Farkes said. ‘The biological differences between us are so vast that even though we were close in weight I was still completely dominated by them.”

Overall, we believe that Laura Kelly should not have vetoed the bill. When transgenders participate in sports that don’t fit their biological sex, it creates inequality when competing.

As this issue was going to press on April 4, various news media outlets announced that SB 180 had cleared the Senate, sending it the governor’s desk where it is expected to be vetoed. The bill would define a person’s gender as “either male or female, at birth.” The bill bans transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms in schools, prisons, jails, rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters and other spaces “where biology, safety or privacy” prompt separate facilities for men and women.

For more information on the bill, go to smnw.com.