Today, the Indiana state legislature voted to override Governor Eric Holcomb’s veto of HB 1041, legislation which prohibits biological males from competing in girls’ athletics in K-12 schools. This makes Indiana the 17th state to enact a law explicitly protecting the integrity of women’s sports.

Earlier today, American Principles Project (APP) President Terry Schilling co-authored an op-ed with Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) encouraging the legislature to vote to pass the bill.

In response to the vote, Schilling released the following statement cheering the news:

“Today, Indiana lawmakers took an important stand in passing this law to protect girls’ sports. Preserving a fair playing field for female athletes is both the right thing to do and an obvious political winner, as evidenced by recent polling both in Indiana and nationally.

“Of course, it’s unfortunate this vote was even necessary. Governor Holcomb had an easy opportunity earlier this year to join dozens of other state executives in defending girls’ sports, but instead, he surrendered to the pressure of woke ideologues trying to eliminate biological reality. While this might have been the norm for Republicans a few years ago, voters now have made it clear they expect their leaders to stand against this insanity. Backing down from critical fights like this is simply not acceptable anymore.

“We applaud Indiana legislators for overcoming Holcomb’s cowardice to protect their state’s girl athletes, and we urge the remaining states without such protections to act immediately to implement them.”

To schedule an engagement with American Principles Project, contact Paul Dupont at (o) 202-503-2010 or pdupont@americanprinciplesproject.org.