Lawmakers in Louisiana sent a bill that would prohibit transgender girls and women in the state from competing on girls’ and womens’ public elementary, secondary and college sports teams to the state’s Democratic governor on Thursday, who will likely issue a veto of the measure, which he previously called “unnecessary and discriminatory.”
The state’s Republican-led House passed SB 156 by a vote of 77-17 Thursday afternoon with some support from Democrats. The measure had previously passed Louisiana’s GOP-controlled Senate by a vote of 29-6, where it also had the support of some Democrats in the chamber.
The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is likely to veto it as he said last month that he didn’t support the measure because there wasn’t a need for it and because he saw it as discriminatory. While SB 156 passed both chambers of the state legislature with veto-proof margins, it’s unclear whether enough lawmakers would vote to override a potential veto.
The bill’s passage adds Louisiana to a growing list of states that have moved to implement such bans in 2021 — a year that has seen an unprecedented number of anti-trans bills introduced in statehouses. So far this year, South Dakota, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia and Montana have enacted similar sports bans.
