A Tale of Two Guvs

This is a tale of two governors, two Republicans, two conservative Republican governors, both of them besieged by a constituency with fear in their hearts and minds, a very specific fear that boys would deliberately fake their maleness in order to compete in girls'--womens'--athletics and then swim faster and jump higher than all their female competitors, doing all of that in order to gain prestige or glory or fame or whatever.

Two governors. Two states. Same worried and grieved constituency.

One of them, Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa, recently signed a bill that prohibits transgender females from participating in girls high school sports and women’s college athletics. Like a great politician, she turned the signing into a photo op, surrounding herself with brightly smiling young ladies. “No amount of talent, training or effort can make up for the natural physical advantages males have over females. It’s simply a reality of human biology,” so said Gov. Reynolds to all those justice-seeking young women. “Forcing females to compete against males is the opposite of inclusivity and it’s absolutely unfair.” 

A matter of justice, she called it, a matter of gender, a matter of fighting off the injustice of trans athletes competing against the plague of gender-busting boys, hungry for athletic trophies.

Her signing was a proud spectacle for Iowa conservatives, who had, with the governor's signature, successfully fought off the evil wokeness of the libs--and, in a stroke of genius, created in the minds of her immediate audience there in the office, an abiding sense of the righteousness of her--and their--position on this whole "trans" mess.

Did I mention an election coming up in a few month?

Have a look. That signing was just totally wholesome, all those young women learning justice and the American way. Look at those two little cuties just to the right of the Guv. Isn't that darling? They're learning how to keep those evil trans kids out.



Now have a look at this bald man. This is Governor Spencer Cox, of Utah. He's not signing a bill. He's not surrounded by a bevy of beautiful blonde young women, although he could have been--Utah is pretty much like Iowa, after all. Gov. Cox's constituency is just as conservative, maybe more so. For the record, in 2020,Trump won Utah with 58.1% of the vote, a margin of 20.5%. In Iowa, Trump bested Joe Biden, 53.1% to 44.9, which suggests that Utah may well be an even more conservative state than Iowa.

It might surprise you to learn that Governor Spencer Cox of Utah not only didn't surround himself by darling young women, he chose not to sign a similar bill at all. Yes, he's a Republican. Yes, he's conservative. I'm guessing, in Utah, he's also God-fearing. But he told the press he had other priorities than holding off a hoard of so-called "trans" young men looking to take state championships in women's sports.

Gov. Cox had significant concerns about the mental health of transgender kids. As he explained when he vetoed the bill, he was struck by several numbers--for instance, that 86 percent of trans youth have reported thoughts of suicide and 56 percent have reported a suicide attempt. Meanwhile, he explained that of the 75,000 high school kids who play high school sports in the Utah, only four are openly transgender, and of that four only one student plays on a girls’ team.

“Four kids and only one of them playing girls sports. That’s what this is all about,” Cox wrote. “Four kids who aren’t dominating or winning trophies or taking scholarships. Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are part of something.”

But hold the fort. The Utah legislature swears it will override Governor Cox's veto. They simply won't have boys taking over girls sports in Utah. No way.

Utah looks a lot like Iowa, I'm thinking. When the legislature overrides his veto, they can gather a whole bunch of high school girls together--throw in a couple of kindergartners, too--to celebrate a righteous victory over the lib malaise that's threatening our freedoms.

Thank goodness.