On Transgender Day of Visibility, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) once again made good on his pledge to protect LGBTQ+ rights in the state, vetoing five anti-LGBTQ+ bills passed by the state legislature’s Republican majority.

During a private ceremony at the state Capitol on Tuesday, March 31, Evers told a crowd of LGBTQ+ young people and their families that he would have like to have written “Hell no” on the bills which would have instituted anti-trans sports bans, required schools to out trans and nonbinary kids to their parents, and impacted Wisconsin doctors’ ability to provide gender-affirming care to minors.

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“The actual thing I have to say is, ‘Not approved,’” Evers said, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.

Among the anti-trans measures Evers vetoed were Assembly Bills 100 and 102, both of which would have banned transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports, according to Erin in the Morning. A.B. 100 would have impacted athletics programs in K–12 schools, while A.B. 102 would have applied to the University of Wisconsin and technical college systems.

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A.B. 103 would have required Wisconsin school boards to ban teachers and school staff from using trans and nonbinary students’ preferred names and pronouns without permission from their parents, and would have required schools to out trans and nonbinary kids to their parents. As independent journalist Erin Reed notes, the law would have given parents “veto power over a trans student’s identity at school” and would have “functioned as a forced outing mandate, requiring schools to disclose a student’s transgender status to parents who may respond with rejection, abuse, or removal from the home.”

A.B. 104 and Senate Bill 405 both targeted providers of gender-affirming care. As Reed notes, A.B. 104 would have banned doctors in the state from providing gender-affirming care — which is widely accepted by nearly all major American medical associations as safe and evidence-based for minors — to anyone under 18. S.B. 405, meanwhile, would have created a civil cause of action in the state, allowing anyone who received gender-affirming care as a minor to sue their doctor for “physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological injury” until they turn 33.

In February, Wisconsin state Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D) argued that the five bills were part of an effort to “legislate trans people out of public life,” the Wisconsin Examiner reported at the time. Of S.B. 405 in particular, Spreitzer said the bill was a “blatant effort to threaten health care professionals with privileged litigation in the hopes that it will create a chilling effect and that they will stop providing gender affirming care.”

On Tuesday, Evers issued similar veto statements for each of the bills, writing that his “promise has always been that I will veto any bill that makes Wisconsin a less safe, less inclusive, and less welcoming place for LGBTQ people and kids.”

“It has been my honor to keep that promise over the course of two terms as governor, and I am proud to deliver on that promise again today,” he added.

Evers wrote that he was vetoing the bills “because I object to codifying discrimination into state statute and the Wisconsin State Legislature’s ongoing efforts to perpetuate hateful and discriminatory rhetoric and policies targeting LGBTQ Wisconsinites, including our transgender and gender nonconforming kids.”

“LGBTQ kids, including transgender and gender nonconforming kids, deserve our love, respect, and support just like any other kid,” Evers wrote.

Of S.B. 405, he added that he objects to “restricting medical professionals like physicians from providing evidence-based and medically appropriate care to their patients, restricting parents from making decisions with physicians to ensure their kids receive the healthcare they need, and preventing patients from receiving that basic, life-saving care,” adding that “the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychology Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have all stated that gender-affirming care saves lives.”

While Republicans hold majorities in both the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly, they don’t have the votes in either chamber to meet the two-thirds supermajority needed to override Evers’s vetoes.

LGBTQ+ rights organization Fair Wisconsin thanked Evers for supporting LGBTQ+ rights in a Tuesday statement.

“You have built your professional life on doing what is best for kids, and you made good on that commitment by vetoing five bills; with these vetoes, you protected health care for trans kids and made sure they know they belong and are safe in our schools and welcome on our teams,” the statement read. The bills Fair Wisconsin said “were about excluding trans people from public life, and we cannot allow that, especially when our trans community is being attacked by so many levels of government.”

Evers has consistently vetoed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that has reached his desk, including previous attempts to ban gender-affirming care for minors and to restrict trans women and girls’ participation in sports.

His most recent vetoes come not only amid the presidential administration’s efforts to roll back rights and protections for transgender Americans, but, as Wisconsin Public Radio notes, as Democrats like California Gov. Gavin Newsom have suggested that the party should back away from full-throated support for transgender rights in order to improve their chances in both the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

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