Gov. Andy Beshear defends veto of transgender athletes sports ban

Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear defended his record on transgender issues Sunday during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” saying his party does not “throw anybody under the bus,” as host Jake Tapper pressed him over his veto of a bill barring transgender students from girls’ and women’s sports.

Tapper confronted Beshear about his 2022 veto of Kentucky’s Senate Bill 83, which prohibited male students from participating on girls’ athletic teams from sixth grade through college. The Republican-controlled legislature later overrode Beshear’s veto.

The governor pointed to what he described as Kentucky’s lone transgender athlete at the time before defending his broader approach.

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“Here’s my take. We don’t throw anybody under the bus,” Beshear said, “That is not the party that we are. We start as a party of compassion and empathy. And I tell you what. If we want to ruin sports, put government in charge of them.”

RNC National Press Secretary Natalie Baldassarre ripped Beshear’s record in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital, accusing the potential 2028 presidential contender of putting transgender policies ahead of female athletes.

“Democrats claim to be the party of women,” she said. “But they can’t define what a woman is and have no issues when men expose themselves in locker rooms or take over women’s sports. Andy Beshear can pretend he’s for fairness, but his woke trans record shows he traded girls’ safety for applause from men in dresses.”

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Beshear told Tapper that he believed athletic competition should be fair but rejected abandoning transgender Americans as Democrats face political attacks over the issue.

“Sports need to be fair, and there should be no unfair advantage,” Beshear said. “But, in Kentucky, we already had rules in place with our Kentucky High School Athletic Association that prevented any of the things that you saw ultimately in colleges or the rest.”

Kentucky legislative records show the 2022 legislation, Senate Bill 83, known as the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” dealt with athletics and did not include restrictions on transgender medical treatments for minors. The measure required girls’ and women’s athletic teams to be based on biological sex and prohibited male students from participating in them.

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Those healthcare and school-facility provisions instead appeared in Senate Bill 150, a separate measure Beshear vetoed in 2023. 

The legislation restricted transgender medical treatments for minors and required school policies limiting students from using restrooms, locker rooms or showers reserved for the opposite biological sex. Republican lawmakers also overrode that veto.

Beshear had argued in his 2022 veto message that existing Kentucky High School Athletic Association rules were sufficient to protect competitive fairness. The rules at the time generally required athletes to participate according to the sex listed on their birth certificate, while providing a pathway for transgender athletes who met specified medical requirements.

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Beshear defended his separate SB 150 veto on parental-rights and mental-health grounds. His campaign said in 2023 that his opposition was based on multiple provisions in the legislation and was not specifically about its prohibition on sex-change surgeries for minors.

Fox News Digital reached out to Beshear for comment but did not immediately receive a response.