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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said he has yet to review a pair of bills unveiled Thursday that limit bathroom access for transgender people, but said Friday he's concerned with protecting "women's spaces" while treating LGBTQ individuals "with dignity."
Cox spoke with KSL.com Friday afternoon to discuss various policies ahead of the 2024 legislative session and was asked about transgender issues, which have become a hot-button issue at the Capitol in recent years. Specifically, the governor addressed a pair of bills that would require people in government-owned buildings or schools to use restrooms that align with their biological sex at birth.
"I have to be honest, I've not seen the bills yet," Cox said. "They just came out. I haven't had a chance to look at them. ... What I can say generally is this is a concern for people in our state, is we have to protect women's spaces. That's very important to me."
"I think it's important that we have the discussions happening all across the country," he continued. "I have no problem with that at all. But I hope we will do it in a respectful way, in a way that treats people with dignity, and that we can find the best solution with a very, very difficult issue."
One of the bills proposed for this session, HB257, is the product of Rep. Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan, who also crafted a controversial bill in 2022 to prohibit transgender girls from competing in high school sports. Portions of that bill have since been paused pending the results of a court challenge.
HB257 applies to all taxpayer-funded buildings in the state and prohibits anyone from using a gender-designated restroom or locker room that doesn't align with their sex — that is unless they have legally changed the sex on their birth certificate and undergone transgender-related surgery. The bill also requires state facilities to provide more unisex or single-stall restrooms, to give "everybody the most amount of privacy," according to Birkeland.
Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding — who is running against Cox in a Republican gubernatorial primary — has introduced a similar bill, HB253, which seeks to restrict transgender access to restrooms and locker rooms in K-12 schools, colleges and universities.
Although Cox didn't touch on the specifics of either bill, he appeared to gravitate toward the unisex solutions proposed by Birkeland.
"In a nonzero sum world, are there ways that we can do this?" he asked. "Can we provide unisex bathrooms? I think those are options that we should always be looking toward."
Equality Utah, one of the state's preeminent LGBTQ organizations, has been working with Birkeland on the bill behind the scenes, and a spokeswoman told KSL.com Thursday that she appreciates the unisex restroom requirements.
After lawmakers passed the bill on transgender athletes in 2022 and a ban on transgender-related surgeries for minors last year, the governor is aware that some in the LGBTQ community are fatigued by the rash of bills, but he said "that's how politics work."
"People are concerned; they have an issue. They come to the Legislature. The Legislature then works and tries to figure out a solution, so I don't blame them for being tired," Cox said. "I understand they're tired. This has been very difficult for them. I've had those conversations with them, and again, I hope as we've tried to do in the past — not always successfully — that we can find a solution that ... protects our women's spaces and it treats them with dignity and respect that they deserve."
"I hope that's possible," he added. "We'll see."
Veto threat?
Cox notably vetoed the transgender athlete ban in 2022, but he has since said his gripe was not with the policy but with the process. The governor has said he was bothered by last-minute changes that lawmakers approved in the waning hours of that year's session without public input.
Last spring, Cox addressed lawmakers in a letter, warning them to stop rushing bills through with little public input or risk losing public trust. He increased the stakes by threatening to veto bills that he feels are rushed.
The governor doubled down on that warning Friday, saying he's willing to pull out his veto pen even if he agrees with the policy.
"Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something," he said. "And how we do things matters as much to me — almost as much to me — as what we do. We put a process in place for a reason."
At this point, Cox said he hasn't noticed any profound areas of disagreement between himself and lawmakers on policy, but said he will be "watching very closely" how lawmakers go about their work this year.
"I might actually agree with the substance of the bill, and I might veto it just because I felt like it didn't have its proper day in the sun," he said. "And that really matters to me."
